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Mike and Janice Nightingale, North Manchester, prove that good samaritans are not hard to find.
On Aug. 17, the couple were headed northbound on a wet and slick Packerton Road. The drive was not abnormal for the Nightingales, since they both take this route to work in Warsaw every day. But this rainy morning the couple encountered what had the potential to be a fatal accident. So, like any good samaritans, they acted fast.
Rhonda Breske, 25, Warsaw, rolled her 1996 Ford Explorer off of Packerton Road, landing upside-down in a rain-filled ditch. The problem? It wasn't her speed. Breske said she was going 30 mph, "if even that." And it wasn't the wet, slippery road - at least not entirely.
It was raining that day, the day she nearly lost her life along with the lives of her two daughters and niece. Breske blames the road for her problem.
She claims the problem was the drop-off of the recently-paved roadway and the lack of guard rails separating motorists from the ditches on either side of Packerton Road.
"I really believe in my heart that it wouldn't have happened with a rail," Breske said of the accident.
"It's a safety issue," Nightingale, 25, said of Packerton Road's conditions.
Breske was traveling with her two daughters, Gabrielle, 10 months, and Kayleigh, 7, and her niece, Chayla Conwell, 10. Breske was headed northbound to pick up her sister to visit her father, who had just been admitted to Rochester Hospital.
She admits she was upset, but said she knows she was driving carefully. She had just turned onto Packerton Road and driven less than 500 feet before losing control and sliding off the road.
Her front passenger-side tire slipped over the drop-off in the pavement and her Ford Explorer veered right. Breske tried to correct the slip, pulling out, which ended up veering the Explorer left, landing upside-down and backwards in a ditch on the opposite side of the road.
Breske panicked. Her daughter, Kayleigh, was above water, but trapped in her seat belt. Breske couldn't reach her. Her other daughter, Gabrielle, was trapped in her car seat. Her niece, Chayla, was trapped in her seat belt with her head underwater.
"She had gone under," Breske recalled. "I was holding her head above water."
It was at this point, that Nightingale and his wife, Janice, were passing by at just the right time. One of two good samaritans, who had stopped prior to the Nightingales, flagged them down to help Breske and her family.
"We had witnessed an accident a few months ago," Nightingale said, "and felt helpless." This time, Nightingale and his wife knew they had to do something.
Nightingale immediately jumped down into the rain-filled ditch to help Breske and her family. While he helped the girls out of the upside-down Explorer, Janice called 911 on her cell phone.
Out first came the baby, Gabrielle. Then Kayleigh slid out from under her seat belt and Nightingale and one of the unidentified good samaritans helped her out. But Chayla was still trapped. Gasping for air as Breske held her niece's head above water, Nightingale worked to cut her loose from the safety belt that kept her captive in the upside-down water-filled Explorer. One of the passing drivers who stopped Nightingale and his wife handed Nightingale a knife, and with this he was able to free Chayla.
"It just seemed like a lifetime," Breske said of the rescue.
"A little girl almost lost her life," Nightingale said. "And if that's not serious enough, I don't know what is."
Once everyone was brought to safety, the emotions of Breske and those who aided in the rescue, came to a head.
Breske and the three little girls walked away with minor cuts and bruises and Nightingale also walked away, with treatment for a few cuts on his elbow and hand.
"We were very, very lucky," Breske said. "I was so scared to death."
The memory of the accident is still fresh in Breske's mind. She said now she is "petrified" of driving down Packerton Road. "I believe I'm very cautious," she said of her driving.
But she was cautious when the accident happened as well, she said. Being cautious won't fix the drop-off, which runs the entire length of Packerton Road in Kosciusko County.
Breske said the road needs burms and a guard rail to help prevent accidents such as hers.
"It's a dramatic drop-off," Breske said. "You have to really, really watch to see that you don't get off the road."
This may not be the first accident due to Packerton's "dramatic" drop-off. Breske said the tow truck driver told her at least two other accidents have already occurred in the same location since the paving of Packerton Road.
"It's a safety issue," Nightingale said. "I think there shouldn't be a drop-off there for starters. The road needs to have a guard rail put in so that vehicles just don't slide down in the ditch.
"It had everything to do with the road," he said. "It's a safety issue."
He explained that once a motorist's tires ride over the "hard lip of the road, it's really, really hard to put it back on."
Both Breske and Nightingale are concerned for the safety of other motorists traveling on Packerton Road and other roads in the same condition.
"Something should have been done about this a long time ago," Nightingale said. "The road is unsafe in the condition it's in."
Following the accident, Packerton Road was closed for construction. The Kosciusko County Highway Department was working on parts of Packerton Road Friday morning.
"We're putting the shoulder on," Kosciusko County Highway Superintendent and Engineer Rob Ladson said of Friday's construction. "We have several roads in the county that need to have shoulders. Obviously we don't have the resources and the time to do (each road) immediately."
Ladson said the street department makes a list of road conditions and work needed to be completed.
"As they're completed, we mark (each one) off the list," Ladson said. "Packerton was resurfaced this year (and was) one of the higher ones on the list."
Resurfacing was completed "earlier this summer" and at that time, Packerton Road was "marked as 'low shoulders.'"
Ladson said the street department tries "as best as we can" to improve road conditions as quickly as possible. "We know there's a concern," he said.
As for Breske and Nightingale's concern for a guard rail, Ladson said one is not scheduled to be installed just yet. "At this time there's no plan to put a guard rail there," Ladson said. "That is another resource and time item.
"It's a matter of time and resources," Ladson said. "We try to prioritize things."
Breske and Nightingale both urge motorists to drive cautiously and stay clear of unleveled road edges.
"It's a scary thing, what happened," Nightingale said. "I'm just glad my wife and I were able to help. I think any good person would have done the same."
And hopefully, many more residents will act as good samaritans just as Nightingale, his wife and two unidentified men helped Breske and her family that cool and rainy morning.
Breske said she was very grateful for Nightingale's help and she hopes other motorists don't encounter the same problems she had with Packerton Road.
Any further questions concerning road conditions in Warsaw or Kosciusko County should be directed to Ladson at the Kosciusko County Highway Department at 372-2356 or Warsaw Street Superintendent Lacy Francis at 372-9561.
