Chris Garcia risked his own life last night to help a driver who crashed into a utility pole on Quadra Street, knocking out power to 1,100 customers in downtown Victoria.
"I was walking down Pandora Avenue when I heard a crash and saw a flash, like lightning," the Victoria resident said. "I ran back and saw the crash. But everyone was staying pretty far away from it."
With live wires dangling overhead, Garcia climbed into the damaged pickup truck to check on the driver's condition.
A B.C. Hydro worker works at the scene of a crash yesterday in which a vehicle toppled a utility pole at Quadra Street and Pandora Avenue. The driver of the vehicle was taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries, police said.
"I was scared he was in there bleeding to death," said Garcia. "He was in the middle of a seizure. He had hit his head because his hat was still stuck to the window. He wasn't bleeding and he was breathing."
Then Garcia noticed a woman, frozen with fear, standing beneath a live power line. He got out of the truck and tried to reach out to her.
"She jumped away. She was absolutely terrified. The truck had just missed her. She didn't want to move. So I grabbed her and pulled her out of the way and got somebody else to come and help her."
Garcia went back to the truck and held the driver until his seizure stopped. He comforted him until emergency crews were able to remove the driver from the damaged vehicle.
Garcia, who works as an asbestos remover, said he wasn't really thinking about any danger to himself.
"I just react," he said. "It's just something that I do. It's happened many, many times."
Garcia's girlfriend Amy Slimon, who was at the scene, said it's not the first time he's helped people.
"I've been going out with him for 10 years and I've come to the conclusion he's going to die helping people," said Slimon.
Victoria police Const. Mark Turner said the driver was heading north on Quadra at about 4:40 p.m. when he lost control, crossed the centre line and hit the pole.
"It was a very, very hazardous scene," said Turner. "We approached the scene with protocol and caution. We knew we had to stay behind the barriers. And the people in the vehicle were safe as long as they stayed inside. They were instructed to stay in there."
After a B.C. Hydro crew neutralized the wires, emergency crews removed the driver, who was taken to Victoria General Hospital. "He was able to talk and give us a thumbnail sketch of what transpired," said Turner. "He'll be checked out at the hospital. It does not appear to be life-threatening."
The emergency lights of firetrucks and police vehicles lit up the darkened streets while Quadra was blocked to pedestrian and vehicle traffic between Johnson Street and Pandora. Pandora was also blocked off from Vancouver Street to Blanshard Street.
Ted Olynyk, B.C. Hydro manager of community relations for Vancouver Island, said power was restored to most customers within the first hour. Businesses and homes, in closer proximity to the accident, were expected to be dark for about five hours.
ldickson@tc.canwest.com
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008
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