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Trucker's instinct spares mom, kids

With a rolling SUV in his path on Belcher, a big-rig driver locks his brakes and prays.

By ADRIENNE P. SAMUELS
Published July 2, 2005

Just before lunch Friday, Belcher Road was littered with diapers, a beach chair and 20-foot-long skid marks left by an 18-wheeler.

A red Chevy Blazer lay overturned in the middle of the street, windows shattered, rear axle broken in half.

Amazingly, police said, no one was hurt.

But a hero did emerge: the driver of a semitrailer truck hauling copper who somehow kept his rig from flattening the Blazer, which carried a Dunedin mother and her two toddlers.

"That guy in the semi, he had those kids out of that SUV so fast," said Sue Fredrickson, 39, a paralegal who saw the accident from the window at O'Malley and Mills Attorneys at Law, at Palmetto and Belcher. "That guy, he was awesome."

That guy was Johnny Ponder, 43, of Tampa, a 15-year employee of AAA Cooper Transportation of Tampa.

Ponder was driving north on Belcher as the Blazer, driven by Cara E. Riccio, 28, was headed south. At the same time, a white Toyota heading east on Palmetto pulled in front of the Blazer, intending to make a left turn across several lanes of traffic. Riccio tried to swerve, Ponder said, but the Toyota hit her SUV near the rear wheel.

The SUV spun and flipped onto its roof into the path of oncoming traffic - and his 18-wheeler, Ponder said.

Ponder, a grandfather of three, immediately locked his brakes and prayed.

"I saw baby stuff flying and my instincts told me there were kids involved," said Ponder. "Then she was rolling toward me and I was like, "Oh, God, no."'

The semi, carrying 20,000 pounds of copper, skidded to a long halt. Ponder jumped out, ran to the overturned SUV and asked Riccio if she was okay. Then he noticed the children in the back seat.

"I knew we had to get them out first," Ponder said.

Other people gathered around. Ponder asked for a knife. A bystander pulled one from his pocket. Ponder crawled inside the back seat and cut one baby seat out of the car, carefully handing the child to another man, reminding him to keep the child's head from hitting the glass-covered ground.

Someone else got the other toddler out the car.

Nothing could be done for Riccio until emergency vehicles arrived, but she did ask Ponder to get her cell phone so she could call her husband.

"She was pinned in there," Ponder said. "Even if I could, I didn't want to move her because the roof was crushed."

Police arrived shortly, closing Belcher in both directions. Riccio was taken out of the Blazer and taken to Morton Plant Hospital via ambulance with her two children. No one was seriously injured, police said.

"It could have been worse," said Clearwater Sgt. Lloyd Wentz. "It was more the mechanics of the accident that made it look (that way). The car seats did their job. The seat belt did its job."

The driver of the Toyota, Sabine K. Weyres, 38, of Clearwater was cited for careless driving and allowed to leave the scene. Riccio's husband went to meet her at the hospital.

And the semi driver went to lunch.

"I had a load of copper. It was real heavy," Ponder said. "Thank God it wasn't raining or I would've hit her. Normally it don't stop that easy, but I'm glad that it did."

--Adrienne Samuels can be reached at 445-4157 or samuels@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 2, 2005, 01:21:22]