The five-year old girl waited in the lobby to meet someone very special – a man who pulled her from the mangled remains of her mother’s car and comforted her when she needed it most.
The girl is the daughter of Abbey Kauer, a motorist who was involved in a fatal crash on Friday Aug. 24. The driver of another car on southbound I-35 near Brighton crossed through the guard cables and into oncoming traffic, right into the vehicle carrying Ms. Kauer and her then 4-year-old daughter. The other driver died in the crash and Ms. Kauer sustained injuries that sent her to the hospital, leaving her daughter to wait alone.
Except she wasn’t alone. KC Scout Emergency Response and MoDOT workers came to her aid. In particular, Emergency Response Operator Raymon Crow who pulled her from her car seat and gave her a small teddy bear to comfort her while first responders worked to free her mother.
Today she was able to thank Crow in person and meet other ER Operators, Floyd Bessard and Ed Jackson, who also helped.
Emergency Response Operators started giving out teddy bears to scared kids a few years ago. Sometimes it’s to a toddler who has been stuck on the side of the road in a vehicle waiting for a tire change. Too often it’s a little one that’s been in a vehicle crash and the ER operator was one of the first on the scene.
“Our main job is to manage the traffic so our life-saving partners can do their job and help people as quickly as possible,” said Traffic Incident Coordinator Marcus Slaughter. “A large part of what we do is helping people when they need it most. Whether it’s a flat tire or a crash, we are there to help.”
In addition to ER, several of MoDOT’s maintenance team were sent to help with traffic control, including Debbie Naylor, Deloris Geotz and Dave Winship.
“Our goal is always to see everyone go home safe, every day,” said Slaughter. “It’s not often we get to meet someone we have helped after the incident. This is a special day for this team.”
KC Scout is Kansas City's bi-state traffic management system is jointly funded by Missouri Department of Transportation and Kansas Department of Transportation. Scout manages traffic on more than 1,000 miles of urban and rural routes across two states. Learn more about KC Scout at http://www.kcscout.net. Follow KC Scout on twitter at twitter.com/kansascityscout, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/KansasCityScout.