A local man sprung into action at the scene of a hellish crash on Highway 881 last Saturday morning, helping to pull two victims to safety. Alvin Brockman ran from vehicle to vehicle checking on occupants and doing what he could to comfort those involved in the multi-vehicle wreck that killed one woman.
A local man sprung into action at the scene of a hellish crash on Highway 881 last Saturday morning, helping to pull two victims to safety.
Alvin Brockman ran from vehicle to vehicle checking on occupants and doing what he could to comfort those involved in the multi-vehicle wreck that killed one woman.
Brockman was driving northbound on Highway 881 while on the job with Lac La Biche Transport when he saw the fiery debris of a collision blocking the road. A fuel truck, a log truck and a pickup truck had been involved in the collision. Logs and fuel were strewn across the road, fire was spreading, and he was one of the first people on the scene.
Brockman, who also works with the Lac La Biche search and rescue team and has extensive first aid training, and another employee, left the truck and ran into the carnage.
“The first guy we ran into was the log truck driver. He had dragged himself away from his wreck, probably 30 yards away, and is lying on top of a log with an obvious broken leg,” said Brockman. “He had crawled through the diesel fuel laying on the pavement to get there. He was soaked in diesel fuel... Here we are, working in this - there’ s fire and flames nearby, and diesel fuel on the ground.”
As other passersby stopped to help, Brockman and another man covered the log truck driver in blankets to prevent him from going into shock, and then moved on to the pickup truck.
The female driver hadn’ t survived the crash.
“I took her pulse, and she was obviously dead ... there was no hope for her,” Brockman told the POST.
He kept moving to help others involved. He ran through the ditch, which was covered in snow and diesel fuel towards the fuel truck that had rolled several metres from the blazing log truck. He came to the driver of the fuel truck. Brockman said the man was getting out of the truck’ s cab after returning to retrieve documents and something to cover a large cut to his head.
“He’ s holding a pair of coveralls to his head trying to staunch the bleeding from a large gash in his scalp, and he’ s soaked in blood,” said Brockman, who told his co-worker to apply gauze to the wound and get the man into the cab of the Lac La Biche Transport truck to warm him up.
Brockman then turned his attention back to the log truck driver, who had been wrapped in blankets and sleeping bags. Police were now arriving on the scene, and wanted to move people away from the fuel truck, fearing it might explode, but there was no stretcher to move the log truck driver. One of the other people on the scene said he had a plastic sled that could be used as a makeshift stretcher, so they decided to use it.
“We get him loaded into the stretcher [sled]... and we carry this guy about 100 yards, and put him on the ground. That’ s about the worst of it, and then we wait for STARS air ambulance to come,” said Brockman, explaining that when he initially arrived on the scene, his first aid training and search and rescue experience kicked in despite the scary situation.
“It’ s probably the most terrifying part of an accident. Everything’ s on fire, police and EMS aren’ t there yet, so you’ re doing what you can, and it’ s just horrendous,” he said, adding it was just instinct to go in and help.
“I’ ve got pretty extensive first aid training so I leaped right in there and did what I could to help.”
