Harrowing video has been released of the moment a former ESPN sportscaster is ejected from his RV on a busy California highway after his wife fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into a divider.
Cordell Patrick and his wife were heading north on the 14 Freeway in Newhall toward their home in Valencia on Monday when she fell asleep at the wheel just as he got up to use the bathroom. . KTLA reported.
“I had just unbuckled my seatbelt. It only took about five seconds for the buckle to come undone,” Patrick told the magazine.
“I realized that my wife was dozing off, so instead of going straight, I headed towards the median. I tried to grab the steering wheel, but before I could grab it, there was already a jolt,” he said.
The camper struck the divider at about 90 mph and Patrick fell out the window and into oncoming traffic.
horrifying drive recorder video Video from another vehicle shows Patrick being thrown about 170 feet across the busy road, then rolling on the pavement before the RV hits a divider.
“All I can think about is getting hit by a car,” he told the magazine. “I'm on the busiest freeway in Los Angeles County, and the only thing that went through my head was, 'I'm about to die.'”
A white SUV can be seen swerving to avoid a collision with the seriously injured former ESPN sportscaster.
“I just dragged myself and put my back on the median until help arrived. Help came right away,” he told police.
Another driver, Alf Smithee, stopped his car after seeing the shocking scene.
“I noticed the man was still lying in the road,” he told KTLA. “I was just trying to move the car away from him. He was there the whole time. [conscious]. That was the shocking part.
“I asked him his name, I asked him all kinds of things, and he was there the whole time. He knew he broke his arm, he knew he broke his leg,” he said. Told.
Patrick suffered severe injuries, including several broken bones, a dislocated shoulder, and 17 stitches in his head. The newspaper said he was left with a rash on about 60% of his body.
But he said he was grateful to have miraculously survived the freak accident.
“It was divine intervention,” Patrick told KTLA. “If you didn't think there was ever more power, I'm living proof and I have a living testimony to tell.”
His wife and dog were unharmed in the accident, but the RV was largely destroyed.
