Highway Crash Heroics in Iowa

Representative Derrick Van Orden from Wisconsin recounted a frightening highway accident he witnessed this past weekend while traveling to Iowa with his family. He described how he couldn’t believe what he saw in his rearview mirror.

“I was watching a Dodge Grand Minivan veer off the road at around 70 mph,” he told a news outlet. His wife, Sarah, asked what happened, and he responded, “Someone just died,” as he sensed the gravity of the situation.

Quickly reacting, Van Orden turned back to the scene. “I ran to the passenger side where all the damage was done, and there was this 11-year-old boy,” he recalled. The sight was shocking; the boy’s injuries were severe, and he could see the fractures.

While assessing the situation, Van Orden noticed others had stopped to help. “Yeah, someone had a knife,” he noted, which was crucial for cutting the seatbelt and making a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

As more people gathered, Van Orden saw individuals including a big guy from Iowa trying to assist, and a woman who, as it turned out, was a medic. She quickly improvised a tourniquet from a piece of metal.

Though they worked hard for about 10 to 15 minutes, Van Orden expressed concern that the boy might not survive due to the extent of his injuries. “He’s probably gone,” he mentioned, a grim acknowledgment of the reality they faced.

Later, Van Orden visited the boy at the hospital but chose not to disclose the child’s name. Meanwhile, a recent crash report from the Iowa State Patrol revealed that the minivan crashed into a semi-truck that was merging onto the highway from the shoulder.

Fortunately, there were no fatalities, but both the young boy and the driver were airlifted to medical facilities for further treatment.