A guardrail now makes the rural highway near Chickasha safer
A guardrail now makes the rural highway near Chickasha safer
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A guardrail now makes the rural highway near Chickasha safer
There are signs of change in a rural Oklahoma town after a family nearly lost their lives in an awful crash.
A guardrail now makes the rural highway near Chickasha safer. KOCO 5 met with some of those family members and talked to the man who made the changes happen.
The Wells family said the road in a rural community changed their life forever. Right below the guardrail is a canyon.
The family said the undersheriff installing the guardrail was the best gesture of kindness they’ve seen.
"You never know when it's going to be over. I almost lost my wife and my kids that morning. It was a normal day. I should've been at work. They should've been at school," said Richard Wells, whose family survived the accident.
A normal morning quickly turned into one of their darkest moments.
"The worst hour of my life," Wells said.
Wells said he left the house one minute after his wife and children one morning. During that time, they crashed into the canyon, unable to be reached.
"The service is so in and out down inside of this canyon that 911 service couldn’t find it. I drove past them. They were so far down in the canyon, there was no sign of a car of a vehicle leaving the road," Wells said.
He said there was a hero that day.
"My son came up over the canyon over the ridge to wave traffic down. If not for him enduring the pain with a broken arm and dislocated shoulder, I don’t know if we would’ve found them in time," Wells said.
Bruises, concussions, broken bones and scars will remind them of that tragic day forever.
"Within a minute, our lives changed. Within a second, her life changed. Life is short but it’s amazing the outcome that can come from a tragedy," Wells said.
One thing that restores their hope is knowing action was taken to secure the road so another family doesn’t have to worry.
"Knowing that this can be prevented and will be prevented from somebody else having to get that horrific phone call," Wells said.
The undersheriff said it took less than one week to make the change, telling KOCO 5 "I’ve been in law enforcement over 30 years. One of the jobs that I like the best is to make sure people’s lives are safer in their community and the county."
The sheriff said any place in Grady County that is unsafe, he will look into it. As for the family, they are in the recovery process and said the community’s response has been nothing short of amazing.
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