Second Chance
Trapped in a burning car, Tom Ellwood’s life was literally hanging in the balance
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BY KEN RAMSTEAD, EDITOR, FAITH & FRIENDS AND FOI & VIE
ou’re on fire! Get out! Get out!” “Where am I?” Tom Ellwood thought to himself as he came to. His car was high off the ground, wedged between two trees in a valley. The front end of his car was pointing downward with the driver’s side facing the sky. What was left of the airbag hung limply across his steering wheel. He could smell smoke and hear the warning voice but he couldn’t free himself from his seat belt. “God, am I going to die here?”
The Accident That morning was just another day at the office for the lifelong member of The Salvation Army. As an inspector of independent schools for the British Columbia Ministry of Education, the retired teacher flew to remote areas or travelled by car to out-of-the-way schools to monitor compliance among more than 450 independent, religious and First Nations schools. Ellwood’s “office” was usually a fold-down airplane tray or a car dashboard. On this May day in 2012, Ellwood flew to Terrace, B.C., got up early and drove the six hours to the little town of Iskut to conduct an inspection of the First Nations school there. He was on his way back to Terrace that afternoon to catch a plane home. Traffic was light and Ellwood occasionally stopped by the side of the road to take photos of the black and grizzly bears ambling along the highway. Ellwood had learned to take frequent breaks on long drives and was looking for a place to pull over when something—a bear or large animal—dashed in front of the car. Ellwood instinctively swerved and the car shot off the road. Close Call “According to the RCMP, I went over a 25-metre cliff,” says Ellwood. “Despite my lack of pilot training,” he laughs, “my car executed a perfect half-roll and lodged between two trees 10 metres off the ground.”
“God must have some other plans for me,” says Tom Ellwood
A groggy Ellwood awoke to frantic shouts: “You’re on fire, you’re on fire! Get out! Get out!” “That woke me up, fast,” he says. “I looked around. The airbag had deployed, the steering wheel was broken, the car was an absolute mess, and that voice was right: There were flames at my feet!” Trapped by his seat belt, Ellwood had the presence of mind to hit the seat lever, the seat went flat and he was free. In pain, he tried to shimmy down the
The mangled, burnt-out wreck of Ellwood’s car
tree but lost his grip and fell. “My fall was broken by the Good Samaritan whose voice I’d heard,” continues Ellwood. “The man had been bicycling to a baseball game when he saw the smoke. Dialing 911 on his cellphone, he’d scrambled down into the dense bush, yelling at me up in the car all the while.” Grabbing the exhausted Ellwood, he pulled him to safety, saying, “We’ve got to get out of here, it’s going to come down and blow up.” “I was battered and couldn’t move another step,” Ellwood says. “I told him to leave me but he refused and started to drag me away. This stranger was risking his own life to save me.” And a good thing, too. Burning out of control, Ellwood’s car crashed to the ground, right where he had been minutes before. “I Owe My Life to Him” Alerted by the 911 call, the local fire chief from the nearby village of Kitwanga and some volunteer first responders swiftly descended on the scene. By the time the RCMP arrived, there were more Salvationist I July 2013 I 21