SANTA CLARITA, Calif. – Stunning dashcam video captured the moment a former ESPN sportscaster was ejected from his RV on a busy California freeway after his wife fell asleep behind the wheel and hit a center divider, according to reports.
Cordell Patrick and his wife were traveling on the northbound side of the 14 Freeway in Newhall to their home in Santa Clarita on Monday when she dozed off behind the wheel just as he got up to use the restroom, KTLA reported.
“I had just unbuckled my seat belt. It was only unbuckled for five seconds,” Patrick told the news outlet. “I noticed my wife had dozed off, so instead of going straight, we were headed toward the median. I tried grabbing the steering wheel, but before I could grab it, we already had impact.”
While traveling about 60 mph, the motor home struck the center divider sending Patrick flying out a window and into the opposite lanes of traffic.
Horrifying dashcam video captured by a passing motorist shows the RV scraping against the center divider as Patrick rolls on the roadway after being flung about 170 feet amid heavy traffic.
“All I’m thinking about is that I’m going to get hit by a car,” he told KTLA. “I’m on one of the busiest freeways in LA County, so what was going through my mind was, ‘I’ll be dead shortly.’”
Cordell Patrick recovering in the hospital. (Screenshot KTLA)
Fortunately, the driver of a white SUV was alert and swerved to avoid striking Patrick, who was nevertheless severely injured during the collision.
“I just dragged myself and then I leaned up my back against the median until help could come and help came pretty quick,” he said during his bedside interview.
Alf Smithey, a motorist who was passing by when he saw Patrick on the ground, immediately pulled over.
“I noticed the guy is laying in the road still,” Smithey recalled. “I was just trying to keep cars away from him. He was all the way there [conscious]. That was the shocking part. I asked him his name, I asked him all kinds of stuff and he was all the way there. He knew he broke his arm, he knew he broke his leg.”
Though Patrick dodged death, he still broke several bones, dislocated his shoulder, and required 17 stitches on his head while also suffering road rash on a majority of his body, the New York Post reported.
Nevertheless, the former ESPN sportscaster is grateful to have miraculously survived the freak accident.
“It was divine intervention,” Patrick said during his interview with KTLA. “If you didn’t think there was a higher power before this, I’m a living witness and I’ve got a living testimony to tell.”
The RV sustained major damage, but Patrick’s wife and dog were not injured.
