 JCU
Junior Cara Sharbaugh helped save the life of an auto accident victim
early Sunday morning, July 31, in Washington Township (PA)
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sharbaugh and Elissa Marti,
a Grove City College student, pulled Blaine Schandelmeier from her
burning car moments before flames engulfed it. The two comforted Schandelmeier
until emergency personnel arrived.
Marti was driving Sharbaugh and 2 other companions home from a concert
at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh when they came upon the accident. Schandelmeier's
car had been struck head-on by a car that crossed the center line.
"I heard Elissa say 'Oh my gosh,'" Sharbaugh told the Post-Gazette.
"The car was in the middle of the road and a girl inside was screaming,
'Help me! Help me!'"
According to the newspaper account, Marti reached the car first, opened
the door and began pulling out Schandelmeier. "She had the girl almost
the whole way out. I grabbed the girl's other arm and we dragged her,"
Sharbaugh said. "It was odd that we picked that way to travel home.
We weren't even going to go that way. We were just meant to be there,"
Meanwhile, Cara and Elissa are facing still more emotional challenges.
Elissa’s suite mate died in a rock climbing accident later in the
week and a high school friend of Cara’s died almost at the same time
in a hiking accident. That makes three funerals. The 23-year old woman
driving the car that struck Blaine Schandelmeier died at the scene
of the accident. She was Cora Lee Zeigler and she lived not far away
from Cara Sharbaugh.
“It’s just been a really hard week,”
Cara said. “ God works in mysterious ways." |
