Stranger Allegedly Climbed into Wreckage To Pray Over Elderly Woman After Hit-and-Run
Cars can cause serious damage, inflicting lifelong hurt. Indeed, that almost happened to an elderly woman in Lafayette, Indiana.
According to WLFI, the woman was driving down Earl Avenue on April 28. The thoroughfare cuts its way through Star City.
Suddenly, another driver veered into her lane. His vehicle struck hers, which made it roll and left it only partially on the road.
The worst part of the story was the offending driver fled the scene, making the case a hit and run. Sadly, that’s not uncommon.
The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reported that 2015 saw about 737,000 hit-and-run accidents in 2015. That translated into a hit and run every 43 seconds.
Worse yet, 138,500 of those accidents involved injuries. And that was exactly what happened in this case.
It could have ended very poorly, but local dentist James Lalonde was reportedly on his way home from church when he saw the wreck and quickly got out of his car to help.
“There was an older woman yelling get me out of here, get me out of here,” said Lalonde. “She was just, you know, freaking out.”
Her car had landed on its roof, and a group of bystanders had gathered around, trying to figure out how to help. They initially said they wanted to try to roll the vehicle back over.
However, Lalonde knew that the woman was injured and that any movement could hurt her further. “I go, ‘Let me get into the door that’s pointing up to the sky,’” Lelonde recalled. “I wanted to make sure there was no smoke, no gasoline, no kids in there.”
According to Lalonde, he broke open a window and crawled inside. Then he allegedly took a blanket and covered the woman with it before starting to pray with her.
“I got under the covers with he and said some prayers with her and let her know that she was OK,” he said. Lalonde said he also stayed with her until first responders arrived.
His dental colleague, Angie Hoggard, praised Lalonde and added, “There are still good people out there. … You know, we need to come together more as a community.”
While driving away from the accident, Lalonde reportedly noticed police had apprehended the hit-and-run driver — in the parking lot of Lalonde’s own business.
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