Former ESPN broadcaster Cordell Patrick knows that he should have died on Monday.
“I do know how I am alive, by the grace of God. That was divine intervention and nothing else,” Patrick said, according to CBS as he recalled the Monday incident in which he was thrown from an RV and landed on a busy freeway.
Patrick and his wife were on the freeway, with his wife behind the wheel, when she fell asleep. He had gotten up to use the RV’s restroom, according to KTLA-TV.
“I had just unbuckled my seat belt. It was only unbuckled for five seconds,” Patrick recalled. “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.”
Video shows that as the RV hit the center median, Patrick was tossed from the driver’s side window into the opposite lanes of the freeway.
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“All I’m thinking about is that I’m going to get hit by a car,” he said. “I’m on one of the busiest freeways in L.A. County so what was going through my mind was, ‘I’ll be dead shortly.’”
Patrick told CBS that his face was injured from sliding across 170 feet of pavement.
“It’s indescribable. I didn’t know what was going on. I thought the entire side of the RV had been ripped off. I was trying to figure out, ‘Why am I outside?’” he said.
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Video shows one vehicle swerving to avoid him. Patrick knew he needed to move.
“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, according to KTLA.
Former ESPN sportscaster Cordell Patrick survived after he was ejected from an RV into oncoming traffic on a Southern California freeway. https://t.co/Q68tyqzNzz #BreakinNews #Breaking #News pic.twitter.com/NRgvvm9kfu
— Brett Murphy (@bmurphypointman) January 18, 2024
Alf Smithey pulled over to do what he could.
“I noticed the guy is lying in the road still. I was just trying to keep cars away from him,” he said.
“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,” he said.
CBS noted that Patrick broke his collarbone, two other bones on his leg and a few toes, and received stitches on his forehead.
Patrick believes God gave him a second chance at life.
“It was divine intervention,” he said. “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,” he told KTLA.
“You need to pay attention. All of us need to change our lives in some way or another. I’m getting ready to start mine now, Patrick said, according to KABC-TV.
