An Anaheim nurse recalls a terrifying accident on the 55 Freeway, and her risky decision to help out

Sarah Spriggs loves her job as a nurse, and usually doesn’t mind the odd hours it demands or the half-hour commute to Newport Beach from her home in Anaheim.

But she always has been afraid to drive after midnight. “That’s when all the bars are closing and drunks start to drive home,” she said.

Her fear was not unfounded.

Last month, Spriggs found her normally routine drive interrupted by a terrifying accident on the 55 Freeway, one that forced her to make a split-second decision: Choose caution and zoom off or walk away, or risk injury in trying to help out at the scene?

It was early on Oct. 13 that Spriggs found herself in the middle of the chaotic scene caused by two alleged drunk drivers. Spriggs had been called to fill in for a shift at about 3 a.m., and was cruising in her Jeep Wangler along mostly deserted lanes of the southbound 55 Freeway and was about 10 minutes away from Hoag when she noticed several stopped vehicles ahead of her.

A Toyota Camry sat pointed in the wrong direction on the left side of the freeway. To Spriggs’s right, a GMC Sierra had driven up an embankment.

“Two men in the truck up on the embankment were flagging me down.” she said. “They asked me to call 911, and were telling me the other guy was going the wrong way on the freeway.”

Both motorists swerved, but were unable to avoid crashing, the California Highway Patrol reported. Investigators would find evidence suggesting the Camry’s driver had been intoxicated at the time. He was later arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.

Spriggs was on the line with dispatchers when a Ford Expedition slammed into the Camry about 30 seconds after she had pulled over. Two people were still inside the disabled car as the SUV briefly continued down lanes, emitting a shower sparks before pulling over.

“Headlights were out, so you couldn’t really see that they were there,” she said during a recent interview. “I wanted to help them, but I also didn’t want to get struck by other oncoming traffic.”

There are no hard and fast rules about when it is advisable for a bystander to render aid when arriving at the scene of a crash, CHP Officer John DeMatteo said.

People who walk onto lanes risk getting hit and also become a hazard to other motorists. However, people with the proper training, experience or wherewithal to negotiate those dangers can sometimes make the difference between life and death.

As Spriggs weighed compassion against caution, a pair of good Samaritans in a truck arrived and parked ahead of the collision site to block traffic. One got out of the pickup to guide traffic while the other examined the damaged car. She shouted across the freeway and said she could not find the Toyota driver’s pulse.

Spriggs ran from the shoulder to the smashed car. She saw the driver unconscious behind the wheel and leaning against his passenger with blood coming out of his ear.

“It was so sad to see him like that,” she said. “In that moment he wasn’t a drunk driver, he was a victim.”

He didn’t show obvious signs of trauma and the other person in the Camry was awake, she said. The nurse examined the blacked-out driver’s wrist, and was able to detect his vital signs. She then supported his head in case he might have suffered any neck injury.

CHP officers arrived and provided Spriggs with a collar to fit onto her unexpected patient. A traffic jam formed as all southbound lanes shut down, but things finally appeared to begin settling down.

About 15 minutes later, Spriggs was still on the freeway next to the damaged Camry and providing a statement to an officer. They both noticed the sounds of another collision in the distance and turned to see a white compact SUV barreling down the shoulder, not far from where Spriggs had been standing earlier.

“He’s not slowing, he’s not stopping,” she said. “His hood is on the windshield and he just keeps on going.”

The driver’s vehicle careened into the back of an unoccupied CHP SUV that was parked directly behind Spriggs’s Jeep. Her vehicle sustained minor damage in a chain-reaction crash, but was still operable, she said.

That driver would be the second person arrested on suspicion of DUI following the events that unfolded early that Sunday morning. Two people wound up hospitalized with injuries that were, miraculously, not considered life-threatening. For her trouble, Spriggs was awarded the privileges of filing an additional report with CHP investigators and a claim with her auto insurance provider. But given the choice, she said she’d do it all over again.

“This is the worst wreck that I had ever seen, and there wasn’t any kind of support there already,” she said “I knew, even if they didn’t need my help, I wanted to make sure they were safe.”

Spriggs was spared any physical harm. She was given the option to take the day off, but decided to work a full shift because she knew the hospital was short-staffed. That’s partly because one of her co-workers was injured several days earlier in another collision involving an alleged drunk driver, and was recovering in an intensive care unit.

Between 2005 and 2015, an average of more than 1280 people died each year in California as a result of alcohol-related collisions, according to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. In addition, about 784 people lose their lives annually in crashes involving drivers under the influence of drugs statewide.

“Don’t drink and drive,” Spriggs urged, reflecting on the ordeal. “It’s not just yourself, but other people you have to look out for.”