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Photograph by George Sakkestad

Phillip Nelson (center) and his sons Wyatt (left), 13, and Caleb, 10, put their Boy Scout skills to work after a car careened off an embankment on Highway 9 near Skyline Boulevard. A tree stopped the car from plunging further down a steep slope into a ravine.

Boys 'prepared' to help out at scene of Hwy. 9 accident

By Jason Sweeney

A few miles down the mountain from Skyline Boulevard, the driver of a souped-up imported car misjudged a curve on Highway 9. His car shot down the embankment, hit a tree, spun around and landed wedged against a tree, driver-side door down.

The driver and passenger were banged up. Luckily, they had been wearing their seatbelts and the vehicle's airbags had deployed. But their vehicle was precariously balanced on the steep slope.

The crash happened May 21, the same day a convoy of Boy Scouts was coming down the mountain after their annual Boy Scout Camporee at Camp Chesebrough in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Phillip Nelson, father of Scouts Caleb, 10, and Wyatt, 13, was driving a group home.

"As we turned the corner, we were surprised to see the last few feet of a car sticking up from the side of the road," he said. "The car had gone over the edge, barely stopped by a tree on the cliff side before disappearing down the ravine. The accident must have just happened, because as we pulled over smoke started rising."

The Boy Scouts and their parents swung into action, directing traffic and assisting the driver and passenger inside the vehicle. Nelson climbed down the steep slope to check on the occupants of the vehicle. "The driver was climbing out of the car," he said. "The passenger was a little bit more dazed."

An off-duty firefighter then stopped and orchestrated a human chain to help guide and lift the passenger from the wet, slippery slope, Nelson explained.

Wyatt, Caleb, Doug Hutchings, 12, and Jeff Brouillette, 13, from Boy Scout Troop 566 directed traffic on busy Highway 9. "It was quite an experience," Wyatt said. "We were all hoping the car wouldn't roll down the cliff. It looked like any second, it would tumble down into the ravine." Wyatt said one of the occupants of the vehicle had a gash on the side of his head. "We had to keep talking to him and keep him talking so he wouldn't go unconscious."

Scouts Archit Sheth-Shah, Garret Cowles, Mark Hayden and Peter McPartland were also on the scene helping with traffic control.

"The final concern was to secure the car to keep it from slipping," Nelson said, "so we backed up my Yukon, and using another passerby's tow strap, lashed the cars together."

The first engine from the Saratoga Fire Department to arrive on the scene was driven by firefighter Parker Patri. "Boy Scouts pointed us in directing the fire engine to the accident scene," Patri said. By this time, both occupants of the crashed vehicle were up on the road. "We provided medical aid," Patri said.

With firefighters and paramedics taking over, the Boy Scouts continued home.

The two occupants in the vehicle had sustained minor injuries and were taken away by an ambulance. The California Highway Patrol then took responsibility for the crash scene.

"These guys were really lucky," Wyatt said. "These guys crashed just as a convoy of hundreds of medically trained Boy Scouts were coming down the mountain from a camping trip. If it was only another few feet to the right, they would have tumbled down the cliff, and we wouldn't have seen them."