‘Thank you’ last words Good Samaritan heard
BY MALINDA RUST STAFF WRITER MRUST@LAWTON-CONSTITUTION.COM
The last words Everett Mc-Clellan heard were “thank you,” accompanied by a new friend’s handshake, just minutes before he died Thursday. That new friend was Chad Witten. Both were on the road to home; only one made it there, and another life was scarred by the tragedy. “I knew him for about a minute,” Witten said in an interview Thursday evening with The Lawton Constitution. “I thought at first when he got out
of the car to come help me that he was a man from our church, Austin Bell.” McClellan definitely was not Bell, and, at that time, was a stranger. After the wreck, Austin Bell was the one who first stopped to help Witten until emergency personnel arrived. Witten said he stopped Thursday morning to help a couple stranded in the middle of East Lee Boulevard, near Flower Mound Road, simply because he believes he should help people if he can. “Everyone was headed to work, and all these cars just kept driving past them,” he said. “I thought, ‘I’m off. I don’t have to be anywhere by a certain time.’ Mr. Mc-Clellan was right behind me, and he pulled over, too.” The two talked with the couple briefly, waited for a clearing in traffic, and prepared to push their vehicle to the right shoulder, Witten said. He said the conditions were “perfect,” no cars around, and the two started pushing, McClellan on the left, Witten on the right, and the couple in the cab steering the SUV in neutral. But, before they started to push, he said he stuck out his hand to say thanks for the helping hand. “I thought later, ‘That’s the last thing he heard,’” Witten said. “I’m glad he did.” They started across the roadway, but steering issues complicated the journey, Witten said. In a spilt second, Witten said they both turned at the sound of an engine. “There was just enough time to look right in his eyes when he got hit,” he said. “She never saw us. There was no chance for brakes or to swerve.” After impact, Witten ran to give aid. He’d just completed a first responder’s class and knew he had to try to help. But it was too late. The 57-year-old woman involved in the accident got out of her car and was immediately overcome by hysteria. Witten called 911, checked on the couple in the SUV, then moved the woman from the roadway into his truck. The agony of his experience was obvious as Witten recalled the tale; from the start, he said he’d never seen anything like it in his life. The only thing worse than living through such an ordeal is the unresolved emotional impacts of living while McClellan died. “All day it’s been running through my head that it was really a coin toss whether she hit the left or right side of the car,” Witten said. “I was two feet away; it could’ve been me. It could have been both of us.” “There’s emotional feelings, then you’ve got feelings of happiness that it wasn’t you. Then, there’s guilt because he died, and you’re happy you’re alive.” Although reliving the accident was painful for Witten, he said he wanted to talk about it. “Of course my heart and prayers go out to his family and friends. I’d like everyone to know that friend that I met this morning was a good man. He was doing a good, unselfish deed. It’s very tragic. I wish I could have known him under different circumstances.” JEFF DIXON/STAFF Two men’s efforts to push this SUV safely to the shoulder of East Lee Boulevard resulted in the death of a Fort Sill soldier Thursday after another vehicle crashed into him.Authorities said Everett McClellan, 38, died when the Chevrolet HHR struck the back end of the SUV; no one else was injured.
