Saturday night, Mechel Wall's memories of her husband Barry lying beneath a tractor four years ago and the months of recovery from his injuries rekindled when the Walls drove upon a head-on crash.
It was just after 9:30 p.m. Barry and Mechel Wall, parents of eight children, had a date night -- dinner and a movie. They were enjoying the ride home together along Arkansas Highway 72.
"All of a sudden, I see these two cars," Mechel said. "It just happened seconds before" in the middle of a sharp curve in front of Jac's Ranch.
Mechel and Barry jumped out of their car to check on the people in the vehicles. They called 911.
Inside an overturned Nissan Pathfinder they found a woman, hanging upside-down.
"We knew that you really shouldn't move someone," Mechel said, but "she was hanging upside down from her seat belt and was uncomfortable. She wanted out."
A few minutes earlier, they had noticed a silver sedan three vehicles in front of them traveling slowly and erratically through Sugar Creek valley, Mechel said.
"He was driving really slow ... by the time we got to the top of the hill, everyone sped up," Mechel said.
Less than a mile later, they arrived at the crash site to find the sedan, a Chevrolet Cavalier, wrecking on the side of the road. The driver, Gary Ray Young, was lying in the ditch near his car. He had not been wearing his seat belt and was ejected by the impact.
A 2012 Nissan Pathfinder was mangled on the other side of the road, on its top.
Inside hung Janet E. Brown, 34, of Bella Vista. She was on her way to work in Bentonville when she met the eastbound car head-on in her lane. Her SUV careened off the highway, hit a sign, then flipped.
Mechel said Brown unfastened her seat belt and was able to scoot towards the back door, which Barry opened enough to allow her get out.
As all this was happening, the memories of Barry's ordeal flooded back: Barry lay beneath his tractor, pinned for more than half an hour. He knows all too well the trauma and fear of being involved in an accident, Mechel said.
"Barry was holding her hand. I was stroking her head and trying to soothe her. She was going into shock," Mechel said. She called Brown's husband.
Another traveler that night, Dr. Karen Sherman of Pea Ridge, arrived just after Barry and Mechel. She checked the man who had been ejected -- Young, 58, of Durant, Okla.
"He had a pulse and his airway was not obstructed," Sherman, a veterinarian, said, so she went to the SUV as Pea Ridge ambulance personnel arrived. She said her medical training prompted her to assess the situation medically rather than emotionally. Sherman's clinic, Oak View Animal Clinic, is at the intersection of It'll Do Road, Dove Road and Arkansas 72 -- an intersection on another curve that's seen its share of bad vehicle collisions. She said she and her staff are often the first on the scene of an accident.
Traffic was blocked on the narrow, two-lane highway for nearly an hour. Benton County Sheriff's Office deputies, Pea Ridge police and Pea Ridge firefighters assisted in traffic control.
According to the Arkansas State Police report, the vehicle Young was driving crossed the center line when he was attempting to negotiate the right-hand turn and struck Brown's vehicle.
Young was charged with driving while intoxicated, careless driving, no proof of insurance and no seat belt. He was transported to Mercy Medical Center in Rogers by Pea Ridge ambulance, then transferred to Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville. On Tuesday, he was listed in serious condition.
Brown was taken by Bentonville ambulance to Northwest Medical Center in Bentonville. She has been discharged.
For the Walls, a quiet date night changed course when they saw the wrecked vehicles and then helped a fellow accident victim.
Saturday night there were no visible signs of Barry's ordeal four years ago.
On July 13, 2010, Barry Wall was working on the family's land off Kimberlyn Lane south of Pea Ridge, just north of Sugar Creek Road ,when the David Brown tractor flipped over on top of him. It was still running. The Walls' then-9-year-old son, Bryce, called 911 and turned off the tractor, which was spewing fuel and oil on Wall. Bryce ran to a neighbor's home to get help, then returned to his father's side. Wall was comforted by Bryce's presence and the dispatch operators who talked to him on the phone until help arrived.
Saturday night, one of the Pea Ridge emergency responders recognized Wall, and told Wall that he had been at the tractor scene.
The Walls know all too well that life can change in an instant. They also know the value of someone nearby offering comfort.
They said they were glad they were able to help Brown Saturday night.
General News on 07/30/2014