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Good deed ends with injury

In a freak accident, a woman is run over by her own car and trapped underneath.

By CAMILLE C. SPENCER
Published December 9, 2005

HUDSON - When Margaret Kochs drove into the porch at her Bayonet Point Village mobile home recently, neighbors said it was a sign that the 85-year-old needed to hand over the keys to her white Grand Marquis.

"It's unfortunate, because people don't want to give up their license," said Marie Beller, co-op president at Bayonet Point Village where Kochis has lived for about five years. "It's like giving up their freedom."

But shortly after noon Friday, Kochis' independent spirit could have cost the widow her life.

While trying to flag down an ambulance headed to help a friend, Kochis got out of her car to redirect the ambulance on Cobblestone Drive and mistakenly put her car in reverse instead of park.

Authorities said the car started moving and, as she got tangled in her seatbelt, backed over her legs and left her trapped under her vehicle, which stopped when it rear-ended the ambulance. "Her arm was still in the seatbelt, and she rolled backward into the ambulance," said Trooper Jeff Kidder of the Florida Highway Patrol. "She was pinned under her car."

Paramedics jumped out to help Kochis, who was listed in stable condition Friday afternoon at Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point, according to a hospital spokesman.

Kochis, who turns 86 Saturday, was headed to Creations Hair & Nail Salon in Hudson after she got a call from a friend who had just been in a crash on State Road 52 and La Madera Drive. He had refused medical treatment at the scene and asked the tow truck driver to drop him off at the nearby salon, where his wife was getting her hair done.

An ambulance was headed to the salon to treat the man, although authorities later couldn't say why. The man had called Kochis and asked her to pick him and his wife up. Kochis was headed down Cobblestone Drive and noticed the ambulance, but thought it was going to pass the salon. After she rushed out of her car, Kochis tried to stop the vehicle but couldn't, said Kathy Winters, a salon receptionist who saw the accident through the business' window.

Later, Kochis' car was parked across the street on the grass, where investigators had moved it. The couple Kochis came to pick up accompanied her to the hospital. The husband had a minor head injury from the earlier accident, Winters said.

Standing outside of the salon, Winters said Kochis is a regular customer who'd been coming there for years.

Said Kochis' hairdresser, Linda Carrillo: "She came to do a good deed, and she ended up with injuries."

-- Camille C. Spencer can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6229 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6229. Her e-mail address is cspencer@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 9, 2005, 18:45:13]