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Published on Tuesday, April 20, 2004
in the Sun Herald
Off-duty colonel saves driver
You're driving in heavy, mid-day traffic on Interstate 75 when a semi-truck ahead of you suddenly locks up its brakes and skids out of control.
The truck jackknifes and slams into a concrete guardrail, spewing diesel fuel and wreckage across the road. The smashed-up cab then bursts into flames.
What do you do?
When Jack Price found himself in this situation Monday, he didn't have to think about the answer. His training kicked in, and that allowed Price to take action.
Price, who works as a Tampa-based auto-body repair consultant for Southeast Toyota Distributors, has been a volunteer Florida Highway Patrol auxiliary trooper for the past 16 years.
As others merely reached for their cell phones to call 9-1-1, Price, who was off-duty at the time, pulled his civilian car up close to the wreck. He then got out and calmly ran across a pool of spilled diesel fuel to the injured truck driver.
The man had been thrown from the truck and was lying face down on the side of the road.
As other passers-bys then rushed to help, Price grabbed the man's legs and pulled him across a grassy median to get him away from the flames and smoke, which were blowing in their direction on a stiff breeze.
"When we rolled him over, he started breathing," Price said. "His clothes were soaked (with fuel). I grabbed his legs and pulled him a long ways."
The victim, Michael E. Douglas, 48, was listed in critical condition late Monday at Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers.
Not only did Price act swiftly to save the victim, but he also provided the Florida Highway Patrol with some of the most detailed information they were to receive from witnesses on a vehicle which may have been involved in the wreck.
Price told the FHP he saw a black Honda sedan, manufactured within the last three years, just in front of the truck. It left the scene.
The wreck occurred about at 11:50 a.m. in the northbound lanes of I-75 on the bridge over U.S. 17.
Price, who lives in Apollo Beach, works to train Toyota dealerships and other businesses how to properly repair collision damage.
He was heading south on I-75 to a Naples Toyota dealership when the wreck happened on the opposite side of the road.
What he saw made him whip his car across the center median and drive up to the wreck.
"I actually saw (the trucker) when he locked up his brakes, and I saw the black Honda, which was moving very much slower," Price said. "The truck hit the wall, and the minute he hit the wall, it ruptured the left-side (fuel) tank.
"I saw him lying there next to the truck in the diesel fuel, so of course, I grabbed him."
"Trying to get somebody out of a burning vehicle? Not a good idea," said Charlotte County Fire Battalion Chief Kenneth Price. "You take your own life in your hands."
"It's unpredictable," added FHP Sgt. Doug Dodson, an FHP spokesman. "You never know what's going to happen."
But, Price called his actions a "calculated risk." He cited the fact that diesel fuel is less volatile than gasoline. It's only the vapors that ignite.
"Being diesel fuel and the fact that it was burning in the upper portion of the truck, I saw it as a calculated risk," Price said. "It was more praying than anything."
He also credits his FHP training.
"First and foremost, you're taught to analyze your scene," Price said. "In a situation like this, you really don't think at all. You look at the whole scene and it becomes 'instant analysis' ... and then you make a gut decision."
Price has responded while on duty to several hundred wrecks. He's also had to deal with drunken motorists, drug traffickers and fugitives in stolen cars.
He said he would need both hands to count the number of times his training has saved his own life, let alone others.
The ranks of the FHP are bolstered by nearly 400 such volunteers in the auxiliary. Their mission is to back up the full-time troopers, to lighten their workload and provide more officer safety.
At first they ride with full-time troopers; with experience they ride alone.
"We go out and do initial response to car wrecks, secure the scene, make sure the people are all right, set up a perimeter and basically secure the scene until the trooper gets there," Price explained.
Price said he was working in an auto body shop in Miami when a trooper recruited him for the FHP's auxiliary unit.
Although the FHP's primary role is traffic enforcement, in Miami, the job more frequently turned into investigative work.
"You might pull somebody over for erratic driving and it turns out he's transporting a load of drugs," he said.
The FHP Auxiliary is a demanding unit to join. The recruits undergo 150 hours of training, which amounts to nearly half the rigorous 26-week course that full-time troopers accomplish.
The volunteers must also continue their in-service training at the same pace as full-time troopers. They must also qualify on firearms and other weapons, such as pepper spray and batons, twice a year.
And they must work at least one eight-hour shift per month, although Price pushes his officers to put in 24 hours or more.
"There's the old guys like me who do it to give something back to the community," he said. "The younger guys do it to see if they'd like to make a career out of law enforcement."
Price was promoted in October to lieutenant colonel. He was put in charge of auxiliary units A, B, C, F and H, from Pensacola to Naples.
FHP Chief Kevin Guidry, an administrator over the auxiliary, said he "wasn't surprised" when told of Price's actions Monday.
"He's one of the sharpest people we've got," Guidry said. "That's why we promoted him, because of his leadership skills and dedication."