Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Darrell Erickson doesn’t remember crashing his truck on Sept. 17.
But he does remember the people who stopped to help him out.
Erickson, 46, was driving his 1976 GMC pickup west on Highway 20 from Bend to Sweet Home when the truck began to leave the pavement on a curve near milepost 53. He says he jerked the wheel a little too hard to get the truck back on the road, it swung around sideways and flew off the highway, hitting a tree “10 or 20 feet” down the bank.
He remembers looking at his watch just before the accident. It was 6:22 p.m.
Drifting back to consciousness after the wreck, he heard voices and hollered back. He looked at his watch. It was “6:33 or 6:34.”
People on the road above him lowered ropes and helped him out of the truck. Thankfully, he said, they were able to get the door opened. Using the ropes, the passersby pulled him up the bank to the road.
An off-duty Albany emergency medical technician happened to stop and took charge.
“He didn’t have any gloves, so he asked me if I had hepatitis or HIV,” Erickson said. “He took my word that I didn’t and proceeded to give me first aid ? cleaned up the blood on me and pulled pieces of glass out of my skull.”
The EMT threw Erickson’s luggage, which someone had retrieved, into his vehicle and drove Erickson toward Sweet Home, until they met an ambulance near Cascadia State Park.
Erickson spent four days at Lebanon Community Hospital, he said. He suffered seven broken ribs, two cracked ribs, a broken collarbone and a collapsed lung. But after the fourth day, he’d convinced hospital staff to let him go, he said.
He said the EMT even dropped off his luggage at the hospital.
“It means a lot to a person when they’re in the hospital (to have belongings there),” he said. “You’ve got a piece of home with you, a little security.”
Erickson is a 1978 graduate of Sweet Home High School, having lived here from fifth through 12th grade.
His father James Erickson was a Church of Christ pastor in Sweet Home, who is now retired in Bend.
“At 70 years old he can still outwork me,” Darrell Erickson said.
Erickson and his wife Bonita moved to Marionville, Mo., Bonita’s home, in 1985. They have two sons, Jeremy, 26, and Richard, 21, and two young grandchildren.
Erickson is in Oregon visiting relatives and was helping his dad work in the woods last Saturday. He was on his way to Sweet Home to visit other family members when the accident occurred.
He said he’s thankful to those who helped him, particularly the EMT, whose name he can’t remember.
“In my mind, he’s a hero,” Erickson said. “Not because of what he did for me, as much as taking my word and taking a chance on me ? someone he didn’t even know.”
He said that after seeing images of rioting and helpless people following the Katrina disaster, his experience has helped him regain confidence in his “fellow American.”
“Something like this happens, you look up and see these people. They take their time from their vacations or whatever to help you,” Erickson said. “Not everybody’s like (those in the Katrina images.) There are good people. You don’t have to go out and find them. They will find you.”