Good Samaritans sometimes just happen
Jazmin Hernandez is a customer service clerk for the City of Mattawa.
MATTAWA — Pedro and Jazmin Hernandez had never thought of being good Samaritans, but they became just that in an instant about a year ago while driving on Highway 28 toward Lake Chelan.
Jazmin saw a cloud of dust to the right of the roadway near Crescent Bar and thought she was looking at tiny tornado. It turned out to be a car, with three elderly people, leaving the roadway and rolling three times.
Both Hernandezes work for the City of Mattawa. Jazmin has been a customer service clerk for two years. Pedro became the wastewater treatment plant operator this month.
At the time of the accident, Pedro was a fiancé accompanying his soon-to-be bride to a Lake Chelan outing for Mattawa city staff members. According to City Clerk Robin Newcomb, other staff members could see something had happened when the Hernandezes arrived. They were a bit disheveled and visibly shaken.
What happened, Jazmin said, was that to Pedro she commented, “Look, a tornado!” He said, ‘That’s not a tornado,’ and he made a U-turn without saying anything else.”
It was during the time of Washington’s big forest and wild land fires of 2015. Pedro thought it was smoke. He knew it wasn’t by the time he stopped the car.
It was an overturned car in a thicket of trees at the edge of an orchard. Pedro told Jazmin to stay in the car while he ran to the scene. She might see something that would upset her.
“I wasn’t going to do that,” she said.
Jazmin also ran to the scene. While Pedro started to help victims, she completed a 9-1-1 call a 7-ish boy had started. He had gone to the scene with his mother, who spoke only Spanish, and was interpreting her words.
“I took the phone (with the mother’s approval),” Jazmin said. “I told them my name and what was happening. I could see the mile marker post on the road.”
Meanwhile Pedro started to remove victims from the car. First he checked them for life. One woman was still, did not seem to be breathing and was feeling cold to the touch, he said.
Pedro moved on to the other two people. From the back seat he took a man who had an open wound at the top of his head.
“He had blood all over his head,” Jazmin said.
Pedro laid the man down and returned to the car. It’s difficult to remember now who was next, but Jazmin believes it was the man’s wife, who was concerned about her husband and “had blood all over her head and clothing.” She was in the front passenger seat.
“Pedro laid her down and told me to talk with her and not let her fall asleep,” Jazmin said.
Jazmin had no idea why Pedro made the request. She didn’t know he had taken first aid training at Starr Ranches, where he worked at the time.
Pedro wasn’t sure what to do, but he remembered something he had heard about keeping awake people who may have suffered a concussion.
“She looked to me like she might be concussive,” Pedro said.
Jazmin started up a conversation, asking all kinds of questions. Where were they from? Where were they going? She even provided some hand sanitizer from her car for anyone who wanted to use it.
Some time during all of this, a full farm worker transport bus stopped. It had a fire extinguisher that was used to put a small fire at the rear or near the rear of the car.
Also stopping was a man who helped Pedro open a door to remove the third victim. It was jammed and, fortunately, someone had a shovel that was used as a pry bar.
That victim was the woman Pedro thought had died. During all of the commotion, she awoke and started asking for help. She appeared not to be hurt and was not bloodied.
The Hernandezes stayed at the scene until a Washington State Patrol trooper arrived. They left shortly after that.
“The trooper started talking to the other man, and he was telling them what happened,” Pedro said.
After the man said the Hernandezes were first on the scene, the trooper approached the couple. He asked them to stay for the report he needed to write.
Pedro told him the other man knew everything they did, and the trooper excused them.
“We drove all the way to Wenatchee without saying a word,” Jazmin said. “I looked over at Pedro. He was shaking and had a tear in his eye.”
Pedro started the trip wearing a white shirt. It was no longer white. It was red with blood and brown with dust and dirt.
The Hernandezes stopped at a store for a new shirt and cleaned up a little. Still, when they arrived at the lake, they were disheveled, other city staff said, “You look like you could use a drink” and asked what happened.
Jazmin learned what happened during the conversation Pedro asked her to strike up. The married couple had come from Hawaii to visit the woman’s sister, who lives in the area. They were driving toward Wenatchee when the crash occurred.
Pedro said he learned from the man that he had awakened from a nap just before the crash to see his sister-in-law fall asleep and lose control.
Jazmin said neither Pedro nor her had ever imagined themselves in such a situation. It all happened so fast that they did what good Samaritans do as a matter of instinct.
“I didn’t think about that until it was over,” she said.
Jazmin said she was scared as she ran toward the car – scared that she might encounter dead people.
Would she do it again?
Probably, she said. It just happened this first time.
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