Car crash heroes receive praise across the country
Monday morning, USU student Brandon Wright was involved in a collision involving his motorcycle and a car making a left-hand turn out of a parking lot onto Highway 89.
A group of bystanders lifted the car off of Wright, and police also responded to the scene. Following the incident, many of the students involved in lifting the car have received national attention as they’ve been invited to interviews across the country.
Wright, who survived the accident and is recovering at the Intermountain Healthcare hospital in Murray, Utah, addressed the media in a press conference, Thursday morning. The Logan City Police Department also addressed issues surrounding their involvement with the accident.
During the conference, Wright said, “I just wanted to thank all the heroes that put their lives on the line to save mine.”
He also thanked the police, EMT’s, doctors and medical staff that have been helping him. Wright said he has a clear recollection of the accident.
“I remember swerving to try and avoid the car, and then at the last second I laid the bike down as a last ditch effort to take up as much speed as I could when I knew I was gonna hit it,” he said. “Then I blacked out, and I came to for about five seconds when I was under the car.”
USU graduate student Abbass Al Sharif is one of the people who helped lift the car off of Wright. He said he expected to talk to the news, but he didn’t expect to be invited to appear on the Ellen DeGeneres Show.
“To be honest everything is going so fast,” Al Sharif said. “None of us expected to be on this show in particular.”
Al Sharif said the people working at the Ellen DeGeneres Show are very fun and generous people.
“On our dressing room it said ‘For you, the heroes,'” Al Sharif said. “I think it’s too much.”
Al Sharif said he was just doing what anyone would have done in his place. He said the media is making a big deal of what happened, but he is excited to be on television.
Assistant Chief for the Logan Police Department Jeff Curtis said he’s received emails since the accident asking why the police officer in the video didn’t help lift the car, and why he didn’t perform CPR.
Curtis said the police officer who arrived first at the scene didn’t rush to lift the car, because he had other concerns he should address first, and he did help lift the car at the end of the video.
“If you look at the police officer when he walks up, he’s talking on his radio trying to get dispatch the information from the scene of the accident,” Curtis said.
Curtis said police officers have a lot to worry about at an accident scene other than just one person’s safety.
“Our protocol is for that police officer to get the pertinent information to the dispatch center, and the paramedics that are on their way, so they know what they’re facing and what they’re going to need, so they can best handle that situation when they get there,” he said.
Curtis said from the video it looks like Wright is lifeless, but the officer on the ground could see that he was breathing. He said police don’t perform CPR on someone who is breathing. He said moving someone who is injured is dangerous.
“Dragging him any further could also cause him further injury if he’s got any neck or spinal problems,” Curtis said.
Curtis said the officer was responsible for everyone’s safety. He said the officer needed to get the road closed because there was still traffic moving at 40 mph, and he had to put out the car fire.
He also said he wanted to thank the people who lifted the car off of Wright.
“We really appreciate the caliber of students that we have up there at Utah State and their willingness to help, and their willingness to put their safety second behind the safety of one of their fellow students that was in need at the time,” Curtis said.
– chris.w.lee@aggiemail.usu.edu