Mother Uses Gatorade to Put Out Vehicle Fire after Crash
By: WAVE
Updated: February 5, 2013
(WAVE) A Louisville, Kentucky mother came rushing to the rescue, saving her husband and two sons after the SUV her husband was driving crashed along Interstate 64 near Frankfort Sunday.
The crash happened as the family was driving home to Louisville from Mount Sterling after the statewide middle school wrestling championship.
Police say Jeff Branch, the assistant wrestling coach at Fern Creek High School, lost control of his SUV and hit a semi truck.
"After hitting that tractor trailer, it cut across the median, and caused a second collision with another tractor trailer that hit virtually head-on," said Franklin County Sheriff Pat Melton.
Jeff's wife was in another car right behind her husband and saw it all unfold. She came rushing to help while her husband and two sons were trapped inside.
"She couldn't get the doors open. Jeff, Derrick, and Jared were unresponsive and the car was on fire. She said she threw some snow, but there wasn't enough snow to put it out and she grabbed Gatorade bottles out of their cooler and poured Gatorade on the fire and put the fire out," Fern Creek High School Head Wrestling Coach Mark Hitchings said.
The jaws of life had to be used to open the vehicle. Jeff had to be air lifted to a Lexington hospital.
"None of us knew if Jeff was going to live through this. We knew he had been put on the helicopter. There had been no indications that he was responsive or frankly alive and it was one of the most heart-wrenching moments of my life," Hitchings said.
Jeff turned the corner and gained consciousness, but suffered a broken nose, ribs, bones, and other internal injuries.
His two sons were treated and released.
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