Sioux Falls,SD - Jamie Hamley was expecting only to take his kids to school Tuesday, then get on with his day.
But when the traffic ahead erupted in a fiery crash, he did precisely what he'd long ago been trained to do: He saved a life.
Hamley was driving his three children to school at St. Michael when the car up ahead spun out of control.
It was about 7:45 a.m., and the 1990 Nissan slid into oncoming traffic on the busy stretch of South Louise Avenue outside Wal-Mart.
Hamley watched as the car collided with two other cars and burst into flames.
Witnesses fled, according to police, as did two of the three drivers involved in the crash.
"That's just a natural fight-or-flight instinct, you can't overcome that," said Hamley, 33, a former volunteer firefighter in North Dakota.
He overcame it.
"I don't think you ever forget your training. You know what you have to do," he said, "and it happens."
Hamley hadn't been a firefighter for more than a decade, but he grabbed the small fire extinguisher he keeps in his van. He told his oldest daughter - a "very mature" 10-year-old - to lock the doors. And while his children watched, he ran toward the burning car.
Through the smoke and flames, it took a while to see that the driver of the car - Cody Doohen, 20, of Sioux Falls - was trapped inside.
The driver's side door had been damaged in the collision and would not open, so Hamley ran to the other side of the car. He used what was left in the fire extinguisher to put out the flames inside, and set about saving Doohen's life.
He was pinned awkwardly in the vehicle.
"I had to flip him around and jerk him out of there on his back," Hamley said. Finally extricated, Doohen, suffering from burns and a cut on his head that would require several staples in his scalp, told Hamley his girlfriend was in the car.
"People can be lying anywhere in there. You never know," Hamley said.
So, after dragging Doohen to safety, he ran toward the burning car again. But Doohen, perhaps woozy from the blow to the head, was mistaken. Hamley found nobody, and Doohen confirmed that no one else was in the car.
Ten to 30 seconds later, Hamley said, the car exploded. Had Doohen not gotten free by then, he surely would have been killed, Hamley said.
An enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe from Belcourt, N.D., Hamley has lived in Sioux Falls about 10 years. He works for FedEx and is studying to become a nurse. Tuesday, he said, was the first time he'd saved anybody's life.
"We're just thankful he's alive right now," said Debbie Doohen, Cody Doohen's mother. "It's been a long day."
Doohen had fractures in his neck and back, burns and a cut on his head requiring 30 staples, Debbie Doohen said.
Cody Doohen had been on his way to Wal-Mart, where he works in the car shop, she said. He was cited for reckless driving and no insurance, according to police spokesman Sam Clemens.
Police say Doohen was going at least 50 mph at the time of the accident, though Cody Doohen told his mother it was more like 40.
Today, in a Sioux Falls hospital room, Doohen will meet the man who saved his life.
"I'm very thankful," Debbie Doohen said. She said angels had been guarding her son Tuesday morning.
"He was going fast enough to lose control of his car and almost kill himself," Hamley said. "Somebody was watching over him today."
Somebody, and Jamie Hamley. |
