Good Samaritan saves woman during fatal accident on I-15

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2004 | 9:32 a.m.

One man was killed, but a woman was pulled to safety by another motorist during a two-vehicle accident on Interstate 15 near Jean this morning, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Angie Wolff said.

Preliminary investigations show that a woman driving a rented white Jeep Liberty with California plates veered into the left shoulder as she drove toward Las Vegas, about 6 a.m., Wolff said.

The woman lost control of the vehicle in the gravel, and the Jeep flipped over, coming to a rest on its tires on the highway facing oncoming traffic, witnesses told troopers.

A man who witnessed the accident helped pull the woman out of the vehicle, and the two were trying to rescue her male passenger when a blue Saturn with Nevada plates hit the Jeep head-on, Wolff said.

The Saturn flipped over on impact and came to a rest on its top, Wolff said. The man who stopped to help the woman in the initial accident pulled the woman out of harm's way and covered her from the accident with his body, witnesses told Wolff.

"He essentially saved her life," Wolff said.

The man inside the Jeep died and the man inside the Saturn was taken by air to University Medical Center, Wolff said.

The woman was taken by regular ground ambulance to UMC with minor injuries. The man who helped her was not injured.

Wolff said northbound Interstate 15 would be closed until at least 10 a.m. and as late as noon while troopers cleared the accident.

No identities or causes of the accident were available this morning.