NEW ORLEANS — The devastating crashes on I-55 just one week ago have changed the course of so many people’s lives.
For one family it’s solidified an already tight bond between co-workers. When Robert Hall found himself injured and rapidly declining on top of the bridge after he was slammed into and his car caught fire he made a phone call to his office of all places, and that is likely why he is here today.
“I mean I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to leave them, uh, that was the main thing. It was painful, it was just pain,” Robert Hall said.
Monday, October 23rd, Robert Hall was headed southbound on I-55. An instructor with the Department of Corrections, he was on his way to teach a class at the range. Robert says the fog became thick and it was impossible to see. That’s when the car in front of him stopped suddenly forcing him to slam on his brakes.
“You’re hearing vehicles locking up their brakes and sliding on the interstate and crashing. That continued for minutes I couldn’t say for how long, 10-15 minutes. Cars were just continuously wrecking into each other,” Robert Hall said. “The next thing I remember was someone yelling that I had to get out of my car.”
A tractor-trailer slammed into the car behind Roberts, before slamming into him. His car burst into flames on impact. Chaos unfolding all around Robert, a nurse named Darla, rushed to his aid. The ammo meant for his class at the range started exploding in the back of his car. Bloodied and in pain, with Darla’s help, Robert made two very important phone calls.
“He said I’ve been in a wreck and I am hurt bad. That’s when it all changed,” Joseph Cotton said.
It was a phone call that likely saved his life. Co-workers and long-time friends, Joseph Cotton, David Dean, and Mike Phelps answered that call and responded without hesitation.
“We weren’t ready for what we saw. At least I wasn’t. We knew there was a wreck, but I was not ready for the magnitude,” Mike Phelps said.
“I would say like Katrina. You saw vehicles everywhere, the devastation, it was, that’s exactly what it brought me back to anyways personally,” David Dean said.
His co-worker Joseph Cotton spoke with the nurse taking care of Robert, she told them time was running out.
“She said Robert had turned for the worse. He was going in and out of consciousness and that ems still hadn’t been able to get to them yet. She could see them, but they were working on so many people and that we needed to get to him and get him out of there,” Cotton said.
The three of them drove as far as they could through the maze of wrecked cars until they were forced to run with a spine board to get to Robert. Robert’s wife Jennifer was in shock after hearing a voicemail from Darla saying her husband had been in a wreck was left on her phone. She would finally reunite with him at North Oaks Medical Center in Hammond where she learned he was suffering from a brain bleed.
“You can’t repay that. It’s an incredible feeling knowing they were there to help us. And they were there through the time of the wreck all the way to him coming home,” Jennifer Hall said.
Bruised and still fighting through severe pain, Robert is home. He is home to his loving wife and three kids, and he is closer than ever with a couple of co-workers who would rather not be hailed heroes.
In their eyes they are just a couple of guys who did what they say, anyone would have. Despite the horrors they experienced they all agree the light of humanity and sacrifice they witnessed on the bridge that day will forever stay with them.
“What most people don’t realize is how many first responders, whether it’s first responders, whether it’s EMS, whether it’s the fire department or just civilians who weren’t critically injured who were helping other people,” Mike Phelps said.
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