CHP Officer Rescues Elderly Driver Having Seizure As Car Was Moving
CORTE MADERA (CBS SF) -- A California Highway Patrol officer rescued a Colorado woman from her moving car after she apparently suffered a seizure Thursday afternoon.
Officer Leslie Poteet was on patrol on westbound Tamalpais Drive around 4:35 p.m. near U.S. Highway 101 when she heard a vehicle horn honking behind her, the CHP said.
Poteet saw a Toyota Echo in her side view mirror drifting over solid double yellow lines and riding partially into the east lane of Tamalpais Drive.
Poteet drove into the No. 2 lane and saw the Toyota again drift into the eastbound lane and sideswipe another eastbound vehicle. Poteet turned on her patrol vehicle lights, accelerated and made a U-turn to block eastbound traffic on Tamalpais Drive to avoid another collision with eastbound traffic, the CHP said.
As the Toyota approached the patrol car, Poteet could see the Toyota driver was having a medical emergency, and she moved her patrol car further into the No. 2 lane of westbound Tamalpais Drive to prevent a head-on collision between the Toyota and another vehicle, the CHP said.
The Toyota then collided with the left rear of the patrol car behind the driver's door and continued on Tamalpais Drive.
Poteet got out of her car and ran west on Tamalpais Drive to try to stop the slow moving Toyota. She opened the Toyota's driver's door, reached inside, applied the brake and put the Toyota in park, the CHP said.
The Toyota driver, Hedda Schmutz, 75, had a current Colorado driver's license. She was coherent and was taken to Marin General Hospital.
CHP Officer Patrick Roth said Schmutz disclosed she has a history of seizures.
Poteet suffered minor injuries during the heroic rescue and she was taken to a hospital in a patrol vehicle, CHP Officer Patrick Roth said.
