Many stop to help victims in I-40 crash<br>

Tragedy seems to bring the best out of people. So it was on Nov. 4 when several people got out of their cars to help care for an elderly couple that had just been in a rollover accident.

Investigating Officer J.T. Henson said it was unusual to see so many people tending to victims of a car accident.

“An Air Force soldier stopped and assisted me with CPR and he helped stabilized the lady’s head. Just an outstanding job,” he said. “There were some other, just civilian people, that stopped and helped. That was just amazing. I’ve seen a lot of these accidents and most of the time people don’t stop and if they do they don’t stick around very long.”

Unfortunately, the rescue efforts were not enough. The driver, Norman Montee, 73, and his wife, Barbara, 71, died from their injuries. The couple was from Aurora, Colo.

The accident occurred at about 1:40 p.m. four miles west of Winslow on I-40. The Montees were travelling east bound when their GMC Sierra pickup started leaving the road to the right then swerved back to the left into the median where the truck flipped over and rolled several times and came to rest in west bound traffic.

The tonneau cover came off the pickup and struck a commercial vehicle travelling west causing a window to shatter. The driver of the commercial truck was not injured and reported the accident to a patrol officer who was further down the road.

Henson said there were neither signs of evasive action prior to going off the road nor any debris causing the need to swerve. Drugs and alcohol were not considered factors in the crash.

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