Couple may want to stop being good Samaritans

MATTAWA — City of Mattawa employees Pedro and Jazmin Hernandez may be wondering if being a good Samaritan is really a good idea.

They’ve done the neighborly thing twice in the last year. The first time, last summer, they helped save lives. The only negative from the experience was getting really dirty.

The second time, last week, was a non-life-saving situation, but it occurred on that really horrible icy night that people around here won’t soon forget. The Hernandez car was hit after they stopped to help, and Jazmin was hurt.

The Hernandezes were driving southward on Highway 243 to the Tri-Cities for groceries on Tuesday of last week. Reaching the area of the Vernita Bridge at about 5:30 p.m., they watched a Sunnyside school bus go off the roadway.

The bus and three cars were in front of the Hernandezes, Jazmin said. Suddenly, the bus started sliding. It crossed the centerline, left the roadway off the northbound lane and finished with the tail end over the roadway.

As good Samaritans do, the Hernandezes stopped to see if they could help in any way. Pedro went to offer assistance and Jazmin stayed in the car.

“Everybody on the bus was okay,” Jazmin said. “They had called the state patrol, and another school bus was on the way to pick up the kids.”

But there were still immediate dangers. Pedro parked his car in the northbound lane and turned on his emergency flashers and started directing traffic. The bus’s flashers were on.

“We parked that way so the lane we were on would allow traffic to get through,” Jazmin said. “There is no place to park off the road in that area.”

Highway 243 has very small shoulders.

Everything went well until a northbound motorist couldn’t or wouldn’t stop, Jazmin said. The northbound vehicle struck the Hernandez car head-on, and most of the damage was to the right side, where Jazmin was sitting.

“We were really lucky it wasn’t worse,” she said. “We were parked in such a way that the bus protected the car a little.”

The oncoming vehicle struck the bus before striking the car.

It was fortunate also that Pedro was not hurt. He was standing in front of the Hernandez car when the speeding car appeared. He jumped out of the way in time to avoid being sandwiched between vehicles.

Sunday the Hernandezes did not know why the vehicle didn’t stop. It’s possible it couldn’t, Jazmin said. The road conditions were very poor.

The danger did not end with the crash. Pedro had to get Jazmin out of the car quickly. There were still cars coming. She struggled to disconnect her seat belt.

“He got me out just in time, just before another car came by,” Jazmin said.

In the incident last summer, the Hernandezes were driving to Lake Chelan for a city staff outing when they encountered an overturned car in a thicket off the westbound lane of Highway 28.

That time both Pedro and Jazmin left the car. By the time they were finished, the three passengers in the car, all seriously injured, were rescued.

It was at Wenatchee that the Hernandezes noticed how dirty they had become, especially Pedro. His shirt was red with blood and brown with dust and dirt. They stopped to clean up, and get Pedro a new shirt to wear to the gathering.

The Hernandezes have not said whether they’d do this again. They probably would. That’s what good Samaritans do.