The former ESPN sportscaster Cordell Patrick has ended up in the hospital with multiple injuries after he was kicked out of his RV onto a busy California highway.
According to reports, Patrick and his wife were traveling north on the 14 Freeway in Newhall to their home in Valencia on Monday when she fell asleep at the wheel just as he got up to use the toilet.
“I had just unbuckled my seat belt. It was only unbuckled for five seconds,” Patrick told the outlet.
“I noticed my wife had dozed off, so instead of going straight, we were headed toward the median. I tried grabbing the steering wheel, but before I could grab it, we already had impact,” he said.
The motor home struck the divider at about 60 mph, sending Patrick tumbling out a window and into the opposite lanes.
Chilling dashcam video captured by another vehicle shows the RV grinding against the divider as Patrick rolls on the pavement after being flung about 170 feet across the road amid heavy traffic.
“All I’m thinking about is that I’m going to get hit by a car,” he told the outlet. “I’m on one of the busiest freeways in LA County, so what was going through my mind was, ‘I’ll be dead shortly.’”
A white SUV can be seen swerving to avoid striking the former ESPN sportscaster, who was severely injured.
“I just dragged myself and then I leaned up my back against the median until help could come and help came pretty quick,” he told the station.
Another motorist, Alf Smithey, pulled over when he saw the shocking scene.
“I noticed the guy is laying in the road still,” Smithey recounted to KTLA.
“I was just trying to keep cars away from him. He was all the way there [conscious]. That was the shocking part.
“I asked him his name, I asked him all kinds of stuff and he was all the way there. He knew he broke his arm, he knew he broke his leg,” he said.
“It was divine intervention,” Patrick told KTLA. “If you didn’t think there was a higher power before this, I’m a living witness and I’ve got a living testimony to tell.”
Fortunately, Patrick’s wife and his pooch were unharmed. It’s good news that Cordell Patrick is still alive and receiving treatment despite the seriousness of the injuries.
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