Saved: Somebody was looking out for two wreck victims

It's almost a miracle that Phyllis and Larry Jones survived the initial impact after their pickup truck took a 45-foot plunge off U.S. 421 several weeks ago. And what's even more remarkable is that the director of Forsyth County EMS, Dan Ozimek, just happened to witness the wreck and led the charge to save the couple.

"I think he probably saved our lives since he saw it happen and got everybody there real quick," Phyllis Jones told me last week.

What happened to the Joneses, who are in their late 60s, leaves you wondering about the role that sheer coincidence, luck or faith can play in our lives. Death and disasters are never-ending. But once in a while, for whatever reason, somebody gets an amazing bit of help.

Ozimek was driving up U.S. 421, on his way to a meeting, when he saw the truck driven by Larry Jones hit a guardrail and go airborne near Peace Haven Road in Winston-Salem in September.

Ozimek called 911, stopped his county SUV and pulled on his helmet and the rest of the protective gear that he always carries in his vehicle. He's a 57-year-old grandfather who has worked mainly in EMS training and administration for the last 20 years. But he's loved to respond to emergencies ever since he first started volunteering at the Vienna fire and rescue department in Pfafftown, way back when he was working in computers right after attending Lees-McRae College.

He sometimes misses the hands-on work, and he occasionally likes to work emergencies with his employees. But he'd never responded to a wreck that he'd witnessed. "Actually seeing it happen, that's a little bit out of the ordinary for me, to say the least," he said last week.

The driver of the other vehicle involved in the Jones wreck was not injured.

Ozimek felt the familiar adrenalin rush as he made his way down to the shallow creek bed where the Joneses' truck had come to rest, upside down. "My first gut reaction was this was not going to be good," Ozimek said. "You just don't see people survive accidents like that very often."

But he found the Joneses in their seatbelts and semi-conscious.

Ozimek said he talked to them "about a little bit of everything," including telling Larry Jones what had happened. "I think one of the comments he made was, ‘Lord, I hope my wife's going to be OK,' " Ozimek, a Baptist, said. "I told him we were looking out after them and the good Lord was looking out after both of them."

Emergency medical workers don't talk to accident victims just because it's the compassionate thing to do. The talk also helps them evaluate the victims' conditions, and helps keep the victims conscious.

With the help of a couple of bystanders, Ozimek eased the Joneses out of their upside-down positions. That included lifting Larry Jones' head, which had been partially submerged in the creek water. Fuel had spilled out of the truck. Ozimek tended to the couple's cuts and abrasions.

Winston-Salem firefighters and EMS workers -- Ozimek's employees -- arrived. Everyone worked together to put the Joneses into a ladder truck's rescue basket, which then hauled them out of the creek bed so they could be loaded into an ambulance and rushed to a hospital.

The accident is still under investigation, police said last week. The accident report indicates that the other car merged into the Joneses' lane, and charges are pending, said Sgt. Jeffery Stutts of the Winston-Salem Police Department.

The Joneses are back home now, after lengthy hospital stays, especially so for Larry Jones. He has five broken ribs, a fractured neck and a lot of pain. Phyllis Jones said she has a broken left arm and can't lift her left hand. As bad as it is, she obviously realizes it could have been a lot worse.

"We're very grateful to him," she said of Ozimek.

Ozimek said: "I really was just doing my job, what I was trained to do." His employees could have done what he did, he said, and so could city firefighters.

He has visited the Joneses and called to check on them. It's not unusual for EMS workers to make such follow-up calls, he said.

But this case is obviously a special one for Ozimek.

"I think the good Lord just put me in that place," he said. "It just happened that way. I guess it was fortunate for them that I was close by."

Larry Jones, a Methodist, agreed God was looking out for them.

"Without a doubt," he said. "If it hadn't been for the Lord, we wouldn't be here now -- and for the man who jumped down into the creek."

Any way you cut it, somebody was looking out for the Joneses.

■ John Railey writes editorials for the Journal. He can be reached at jrailey@wsjournal.com.