Seabees help save family in dramatic rescue on Highway 101

Seabees help save family in dramatic rescue on Highway 101
By Gretchen Wenner
Posted January 13, 2012

PHOTO BY LEAH THOMPSON, AP PHOTO / THE SANTA MARIA TIMES
A Navy forklift car steadies a vehicle teetering off a bridge on northbound Highway 101 as Santa Barbara County firefighters attach ropes and chains to pull the vehicle back onto the roadway near Buellton.

Six Seabees and a forklift helped rescue a woman and her two daughters trapped in a smashed BMW that was on the verge of plummeting about 75 feet off a bridge after a fatal accident south of Buellton on Thursday.

"It's very fortunate they came along when they did," said California Highway Patrol Officer Jeanne Malone. "They performed a wonderful service for us."

The accident occurred on Highway 101 around 2:40 p.m. when a northbound big rig hauling gravel hit the rear of the BMW, which also was headed north, the patrol reported. The big rig broke through bridge rails and plunged into the creek below, where it burst into flames. The 48-year-old driver, later identified as Charles Arthur Allison Jr. of Grover Beach, died at the scene.

The BMW, meanwhile, was stuck in the center railing of the Nojoqui Creek bridge, "precariously hanging over the edge," according to the patrol report. The 36-year-old driver, Kelli Lynne Groves of San Juan Capistrano, was in the car with her daughters, ages 10 and 10 weeks.

The Seabees — Petty Officers Michael McCracken, Frankie Cruz, Shawn Legg, Benjamin Mead and James Winters and Constructionman Clinton Roberts of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3 and the 31st Seabee Readiness Group — were heading back to Port Hueneme when they came on the scene. They offered to help with controlling traffic or in any other way.
read more here