ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 1996 TAG: 9607220090
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JENNIFER MILLER STAFF WRITER
WHEN LARRY STUMP saw a man waving for help along I-81, he had two choices: stop or drive on. His decision saved a woman's life.
As Larry Stump pulled his 16-wheeler into the left lane of Interstate 81 near Raphine early June 7, he saw the shadow of a man in the beam of his headlights.
Robert Smith, 65, lay under the guardrail, desperately waving his arms for help.
Smith had edged his way up from the bottom of the steep embankment, where he had been thrown after losing control of his minivan.
He couldn't see his wife in the early morning darkness, but he could hear her groans. Betty Smith, 60, lay in the tall grass at the bottom of the trench.
Using her cries to navigate his way, Stump made his way to Betty Smith. She was face-up with her left arm tucked awkwardly beneath her body.
"My arm is numb. Is it still there?'' Stump remembered her asking as soon as he found her.
"It may be broken, but it's still there," Stump said, trying to comfort her.
"I didn't want to tell her that her hand was gone," he said later.
Two other tractor-trailer drivers had pulled onto the right shoulder in front of the abandoned minivan. Stump told them to find Betty Smith's hand and put it in ice. He also borrowed one of their belts to use as a tourniquet.
Stump, who had worked as a Richmond firefighter from 1974 to 1980, wrapped the belt around Betty Smith's arm, just above her elbow, to stop the bleeding.
"As hurt as she was, she really kept it together," he said. "We talked to each other the whole time. We just kind of calmed each other down."
The Fairfield Rescue Squad and State Trooper Rocky Noe arrived at the scene just inside the Rockbridge County line almost half an hour later, according to Stump.
The accident had happened around 5:15 a.m., when Robert Smith crashed his 1991 Oldsmobile Silhouette into the right guardrail after passing a tractor-trailer. The crash sent his minivan swerving into the left guardrail, then back into the right. None of the windows was broken, and the body of the vehicle was intact. Only a bumper fell off.
"If they had been wearing their seat belts, it wouldn't have been such a bad accident," Stump said. "All the doors came open on impact, and that was it. [The Smiths] were ejected from the car."
Police believe Smith fell asleep at the wheel. Betty Smith was sleeping in the back. The couple had left their home in Stafford, near Fredericksburg, about 1 a.m. to visit their daughter in Texas.
Betty Smith was flown by helicopter to the University of Virginia Hospital for treatment of her injuries, which included a broken leg. Her hand could not be re-attached.
Coherent and alert, Robert Smith answered questions for the police as rescue workers treated him for minor cuts to his forehead and feet and across his chest. He was taken to Stonewall Jackson Hospital in Lexington.
He remained in stable condition until he started hyperventilating about 7:30 a.m, according to Trooper Noe. Smith was flown to Roanoke Memorial Hospital, where he died of internal injuries.
"I can't believe he died," Stump said. "He looked fine. There is no way you could tell that he had those kind of injuries."
Betty Smith checked out of UVa hospital July 5, almost a month after the accident. She doesn't answer the telephone. Her husband's voice still plays over the answering machine at her home.
Stump received a letter of commendation from the Virginia State Police on June 25, recognizing him for his lifesaving efforts. Noe has also recommended Stump for the national Red Cross Lifesaving Award.
"This is the first time I've ever had a situation that I wanted to nominate someone for this award," Noe said. "The rescue squad said that if Stump hadn't done what he did, Betty Smith would have died."
However, Stump said the real hero was Robert Smith.
"If it hadn't been for her husband climbing up the embankment, she'd probably be dead," Stump said.
"It wasn't like I ran into a burning building. I didn't have a choice," he said. "It was either do it or let her die."
Stump, who makes a 12-hour round trip each weeknight, hauling freight from Roanoke to Hagerstown, Md., for C.C. Eastern Trucking Inc., said the recognition was nice.
"They should really be thanking the Richmond Fire Department for training me so well," he said.
Stump spends his non-driving hours with his wife, Jennifer, teaching riding lessons and grooming and breeding horses at his equestrian center, Southern Pride, off U.S. 220 in Rocky Mount. This is in addition to raising his four young daughters: India, 6; Nicole, 5; Blair, 18 months; and Cheryl Lynn, 3 months.
If there is anything Stump would like people to learn from this tragedy, he said, it would be "to take a first aid class, a CPR class and wear your seat belts."
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN Staff. Larry Stump, a part-time truckby CNBdriver, saved Betty Smith's life. color.