NEWS- First responders- Surveyors aided accident victim

For Cory King and Chris Davis, October 18 began like any other morning. As surveyors for TB Lincoln Surveying, the two men had set up their equipment in the woods on Monticello Mountain and were in the middle of a normal day's work when around 10am they heard the unmistakable sound of screeching tires.

"There was a car going up Route 53, going around the corner too fast, and it went off the embankment," says King. "We saw the car door open, and a woman rolled out of the car down the hill."

King, who also serves as a firefighter with the Seminole Trail Volunteer Fire Department, sprang into action.

"He just dropped his tool belt and said, 'I gotta go," and he went running down the hill," says Davis.

King estimates he ran 600 feet down the hill where he found a woman lying near her car motionless and slipping in and out of consciousness.

"I got there, and the lady wasn't responding," he says. "But I finally got her to tell me her name and how old she was, and I said I was a firefighter and that I was there to help."

Meanwhile Davis had headed in the opposite direction to attend to another fast-developing danger.

"When Cory ran off, I immediately heard other cars slamming on their brakes and skidding because the car was on the other side of this hairpin turn," he says. "So I thought I needed to get my truck up there to stop traffic because my partner was down there."

While Davis was putting himself and his truck in front of oncoming cars, King still found himself in a precarious position.

"The lady's car was 10 feet above us on a pretty steep slope facing us," King says. "But I wanted to keep the victim stable, and I couldn't do that without people to help me move her."

For a few tense minutes, King waited with the young woman hoping her car stayed put but not fearing for his own safety.

"As firefighters, we do this on a pretty regular basis," he says. "There really wasn't any thinking. I just knew what I had to do." 

Soon, however, firefighters from Station 11 of the Monticello Fire Department were on the scene to secure both the car and its driver, and the woman was soon on her way to the hospital. 

 "Those two certainly added a level of protection until we got there, working traffic and rendering aid," says Monticello Fire Captain Chip Walker. But as for any hero accolades, both King and Davis shrug off any notion they did anything extraordinary.

"I was just thinking about everyone's safety, and we were lucky to be there," Davis says. 

"I just hope people see this and realize they should be helping people instead of cutting each other off in traffic and being jerks," says King.

As for the woman with whom he spent those touch-and-go moments, King says the adrenaline caused him to forget what exactly her name was. He says he hasn't heard anything about her condition. 

"I'm not supposed to follow up with stuff like that, so I just leave it as it is," he says. "I just hope she'll remember it, and one day she'll be kind enough to help someone else out."

Surveyors Chris Davis (left) and Cory King were the first on the scene of an accident on Monticello Mountain.
PHOTO BY WILL WALKER

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