A EUCALYPTUS TREE IN SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA, GREW UP in just the right place along a roadway near the city’s famous amusement park. Wednesday afternoon a young man was driving along the street when he suddenly began having seizures. A witness who was driving a car just ahead of him noticed the car start swerving back and forth, then drive into and through the metal fencing along the sidewalk, ending up against the tree.
Santa Cruz Sentinel
The fence separates the sidewalk from a 50-ft. cliff that drops down to the San Lorenzo River, but the tree stopped the car from making the plunge. The witness, Mike Bethke tells the Santa Cruz Sentinel:
“I hear this horrendous crash. I look back and this car’s just sitting in the air,” Bethke said. “It was unbelievable.” Bethke and several others stopped to help the driver. The car’s engine was racing so they turned off the car and tried to calm the man, who was still having a seizure, Bethke said.
“This guy had to have a guardian angel because few feet either way he would have been down in the river,” Bethke added.
Santa Cruz FD Battalion Chief Matt McCaslin was with some units just across the river running some driver-training evolutions in a parking lot when the incident occurred and were able to make a rapid response to the emergency. The car’s driver was transported to the hospital.
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Read the complete story in the Sentinel HERE and view the photo gallery of the wreck HERE.
Santa Cruz Fire Department WEBSITE.
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