SANTA CLARITA — Former ESPN sportscaster Cordell Patrick was ejected from an RV crash onto a busy Southern California freeway this week and lived to tell about it.
Covered in bandages, Patrick described the experience in hospital-bed interviews with Los Angeles-area TV news stations as he recovered from multiple broken bones.
“It was a blur. It was crazy. I don’t know how I’m alive,” Patrick told KCAL/KCBS.
The crashed happened Monday on State Route 14 as Patrick and his wife were nearing their home in Valencia, just north of Los Angeles, after a camping trip. His wife was at the wheel of the recreational vehicle and Patrick got up to use the RV’s restroom.
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“I had just unbuckled my seat belt — it was unbuckled for five seconds,” Patrick told KTLA. “I noticed my wife had dozed off … we are headed toward the median and I tried to grab the steering wheel, but before I could grab the steering wheel, we already had impact.”
Patrick was hurled out the driver-side window and over the center median wall, where he tumbled and slid along the opposite side of the freeway — a scene captured on a motorist’s dashcam. A driver swerved to avoid hitting him and he pulled himself against the divider as people came to his aid.
Patrick suffered multiple broken bones, extensive road rash and required numerous head stitches
“By the grace of God I’m still here, man,” he told KABC-TV.
