**New U.S. Senate leader aids crash victims on Alligator Alley
By Gregory Lewis
Staff Writer
Posted January 2 2003
A single-car crash that killed a 10-year-old child Wednesday on Alligator Alley spurred physician and incoming U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist into action.
"He saw the accident and got out to help," said Todd LeDuc, assistant chief of Broward County Fire-Rescue. "He rolled up his sleeves and assisted with the care of a 35-year-old female who had a bad head injury.
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"He was helping with medications," LeDuc added. "His assistance was very critical and very much appreciated."
Frist, who was driving two of his teenage sons to the family's Fort Lauderdale condominium, came upon the wreckage about four miles west of the Weston toll plaza before rescue workers arrived.
"As a doctor, my first instincts are to help, and I was privileged to offer my assistance today at the scene of this horrible accident," Frist said in a statement released Wednesday night. "My heart goes out to this family which must face the start of the New Year with this terrible tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with them."
Fire-rescue officials said a family of six, traveling west on Interstate 75, were ejected from a sports utility vehicle when it rolled over. The red 1993 Isuzu Rodeo is registered to Neme Chery of Lauderdale Lakes.
A child was pronounced dead at the scene. Five other people, including another child who was airlifted to Hollywood Memorial Medical Center, were injured in the crash. Two adults in critical condition and on life support were airlifted to Broward General Medical Center, and two other adults were transported to Broward General in serious but stable condition, authorities said. No identities were released.
J.J. Rayman, a freelance photographer who arrived at the crash site before paramedics, said "bodies were strewn all over the median."
The crash shut down the eastbound lanes of I-75 for about two hours and the westbound lanes past 8 p.m. The Florida Highway Patrol was investigating the accident and had not determined a cause.
Frist, a Tennessee Republican who will be sworn in as Senate majority leader on Tuesday, is a board-certified general surgeon and heart surgeon and was among six good Samaritans who stopped to help, LeDuc said. Frist was chosen to replace Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., last month amid a furor over racially insensitive remarks Lott made Dec. 5 at a 100th birthday celebration for retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina..
"He was spending time with his family on vacation," said Nick Smith, Frist's spokesman. "He was heading back to the house with his two boys" and happened upon the accident before the ambulances and helicopters arrived, Smith said.
Law enforcement officials were checking into the possibility that the SUV was riding on Wilderness AT tires.
Bridgestone/Firestone announced a recall of 6.5 million ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires on Aug. 9, 2000, amid evidence that the tires were susceptible to blowouts.
Frist's efforts on Wednesday weren't out of character.
In October 2001, Frist revived Thurmond on the Senate floor after the then-98-year-old senator fainted in the Senate chamber.
After an aide called for help, Thurmond was moved to the floor in the aisle between the Senate desks, where Frist and medical workers treated the senior Republican for several minutes.
Frist, a Harvard-trained surgeon who keeps a medical bag in his Senate office, also rushed to the scene of the July 1998 Capitol police shooting. He treated two gunshot victims.
Frist did not have his bag in his car Wednesday, but he still helped treat three of the injured and start intravenous lines when the ambulance arrived with equipment, Smith said.
Staff Writers José Dante Parra Herrera and Tamara Lytle of the Washington Bureau contributed to this report. |
