As 52-year-old Mike Kelly lay in a Calgary hospital bed recovering on Friday, he wondered how he can ever express enough gratitude to two strangers.
“I honestly believe if they hadn’t done what they’d done, I may not be here.”
Kelly suffered a broken jaw and two broken legs after a bad crash on Saturday morning. The truck driver was heading from Calgary to Medicine Hat. It was freezing cold and conditions were brutal. It was near Brooks, Alta. when he was passing a row of vehicles that he found himself facing the back of a tractor-trailer that had no lights on. He was going about 70 kilometres per hour and the vehicle he hit was nearly stopped.
“There was nothing you can do. The cab, the windshield and just everything came and hit me,” Kelly recalled.
His truck spun out and ended up in the median. His body was crushed inside the cab and he became trapped.
“‘Hello? Help! Is anybody around?'” Kelly said was his reaction immediately after. “You see the blood pouring out and wonder how long that’s gonna last.”
Time passed until one man pried open the passenger door.
“He pushed the windshield back and sat on the dash and put pressure on my cheek and supported me so I could relax my arm. Another guy came with more blankets,” Kelly said
Now he’s in search of those two strangers who stayed with him until he was cut free from the wreckage.
“I’m not a religious person, but there were a whole bunch of things that happened that day that happened for a reason.”
Comments