Occasionally the thought crosses my mind, “What would have happened if I was just a minute or so early? Or late?” Maybe I would’ve been further up in line at the DMV. Maybe I would have been involved in that wreck.
That same thought crossed Tim Bias’ mind after a situation he found himself in out on Interstate 5 headed home to Vancouver, Washington.
Tim sped down the highway, probably with his fingers crossed in hopes he wouldn’t hit traffic when he hit traffic. Everything came to a screeching halt.
As a sigh left his lungs, he could think of only two things he wanted at that moment: home and food. But everyone knows the drill when you find yourself in a backup.
He prepared to sit and wait out whatever the hold up was, probably a raccoon munching an apple on the shoulder, or a funny cloud in the sky people want to take pictures of. A commotion ahead of him pulled his attention back to the road ahead.
Vehicles were pulling over as if to allow something through. Maybe a police officer or ambulance needed access to a wreck, or whatever was backing everyone up.
Whatever was causing drivers to pull out of the way was clearly headed straight for him. It came just a few cars ahead of him when he saw what the deal was, and his mind reeled when he saw it.
A white Ram truck, almost identical to his own, rolled backward straight at him, threatening to…well, ram him!
Tim followed the other drivers lead and pulled out of the way as well. As the pickup rolled past him, he looked over toward the driver. Had he lost his mind?
Everything just kicked in when he saw the driver, an elderly man, unconscious in the driver’s seat. Tim jumped out of his own truck just in time to see the coasting vehicle roll into another car, bringing it to a stop.
He ran to the door and gave it a pull, luckily it wasn’t locked. Pulling the victim out and resting him on the ground, Tim shook him and shouted “Sir, sir!”
But there was no response. A hand on the man’s heart revealed the awful truth: not even a heartbeat.
As if she was a guardian angel, a woman approached the two men. She too had been stopped in the traffic confusion, and as luck would have it, she happened to be an off-duty nurse.
She began CPR and kept it up for the 8 whole minutes it took for an ambulance to arrive. Tim was certain of it…the man was gone.
The ambulance came and went, leaving Tim with a curious feeling so he asked a responding state trooper to give him a follow-up call on the man’s condition.
A day later, Tim’s phone rang.
“Tim, if it wasn’t for you, this guy wouldn’t be alive.”
Every time he talks about it, Tim gets a little choked up. Before he found himself caught in the traffic jam, he spent about 10 minutes at a convenience store getting gas for the trip home from vacationing in northern Oregon.
What would have happened if he hadn’t stopped? He likely would have passed that same man somewhere on the highway and been way ahead of him in his time of need.
Tim hopes to meet the family of the man who is recovering in a hospital in Corvallis. No specifics on his condition, only that he is recovering.
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Article via: KGW
