PORTLAND, Ore. -- In the moments before the crash, Patrick Sheehan Jr. was talking with a buddy as they sat in Sheehan's SUV along I-84 waiting for gas.
They'd run out trying to reach Portland.
Sheehan remembered his friend turned to him and said, “...it's my birthday today and all I can think of is what if we got hit by a truck right now. And I said 'dude, it’s your birthday. I’m here to protect you.' And that was it. And I turned around and…”
And his world turned upside down.
A semi-truck drifted on to the shoulder of the interstate, sideswiped Sheehan’s SUV and plunged down the steep bank into the Columbia River.
Two trucks back, a group of Portland friends were returning from a winter hike.
“We were following a semi and all of a sudden there were brake lights and a cloud of smoke,” said Chad Beatty, the head wrestling coach at Forest Grove High School.
He and his fiancé, Michelle Harreld, along with friends Scott Fuson and Lauren Cheema, had just enjoyed dinner in Hood River.
They noticed a large section of guardrail missing, pulled over and ran back to look over the bank to the Columbia River.
“Then we saw the semi and heard her yelling for help,” said Beatty. “She was in bad shape right away. And she was stuck.”
Fuson and Beatty headed for the semi's cab, plunging into icy, chest deep water.
“Not much thought,” said Fuson. “It was just kinda go in to action. Chad and I scrambled down the rocks as quickly as we could.”
The driver, Suzanne Brault, was confused, hurt and tangled in her seatbelt.
“We both grabbed her and carried her from the water and the wreck up on to the rocks, which was not a great situation because it was very treacherous and moss covered and wet and slippery,” said Beatty.
Harreld and Cheema gathered blankets and warm coats and found a spot to comfort the driver just feet from the back of the truck, hoping it would not catch fire.
“We’re like, we smell the diesel and its leaking and it’s not going to explode, but we really didn’t know, we were just crossing our fingers because it was clear we should not move her any more,” Harreld said.
As the gorge winds howled they tried to keep the driver calm and warm.
“We just immediately started covering her with anything we had to keep her warm and to keep her calm. And then I just kind of put my body behind hers to insulate her from the wind. And hold her because she was shivering and in shock obviously,” Harreld said.
After what seemed like forever, emergency crews arrived. It was now dark, and crews needed to rig a special basket to safely get the semi driver over the rocks and up the steep embankment. They took semi driver and the SUV driver to the hospital.
It’s a day the friends will not soon forget.
“Wow that was really scary,” said Harreld. “But in the moment it was just all of us full steam ahead, making decisions, communicating with each other, supporting each other. I was like, actually if there’s going to be a crisis, you three, all the time, you have to be my team!” she said with a laugh.