Driver Bucks Freeway Odds, Saves a Stranger

Roger Thompson was heading east on the Ventura Freeway when he saw a man climb to the top of a safety fence ahead on the Lynn Road overpass near Thousand Oaks.

It took Thompson a few seconds to figure out what the man was doing, and the feeling of dread hit him just as the man jumped to the pavement in front of his van.

Thompson braked and swerved off the road, just missing the man who had landed face down on the freeway about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

What he did next, according to Ventura County sheriff’s deputies, was help save the man’s life at the risk of his own.

Thompson, a 26-year-old artist who works with stained glass, waded into traffic on the nation’s busiest freeway, dodged a truck and then a sports car, waved several other cars aside and finally brought traffic to a stop. The man who had jumped from the overpass was not hit by any of the vehicles.

“I swerved and stopped, but other cars were still going by. That’s when I figured that this guy was history if somebody didn’t get out there. So I went,” Thompson said.

“I did a good Michael Jackson--waving and jumping and screaming to get people to stop,” he continued. “If I had just let him lie there and get squished, I don’t think I would have been able to live with myself.”

Sheriff’s officials identified the man who jumped as a 28-year-old mental patient at Camarillo State Hospital. The overpass is 40 feet above the freeway, officials said.

He had walked away from the mental health hospital Wednesday morning, officials said. It is about 10 miles from the hospital to the spot where he jumped, they said. On Thursday he was in fair condition at Ventura County Medical Center in Thousand Oaks.

Several coincidences aided the rescue, starting with Thompson’s eight years as an emergency medical technician. Two nurses, an ambulance crew and an off-duty police officer also got out of stopped vehicles to help care for the man.

“It all happened within a minute,” Thompson said. “Everybody stopped when they finally saw me waving, and then all these people were right there to help. We all worked together.”

Thompson said one of the nurses was even dressed in green hospital scrub shirt and pants. The other nurse had a pair of surgical scissors that Thompson used to quickly cut away clothing that was choking the victim. He said the ambulance crew, which already had a patient aboard their ambulance, helped stabilize the man while another ambulance was called.

“It was kind of amazing that this guy had all these people right there in the traffic he jumped into,” Thompson said.

“They did a good job,” Sheriff’s Lt. Paul Buckley said. “It is our intention to at least give them a letter of commendation from our department, thanking them for their help.”

Thompson, who lives with his wife and 5-month-old son in Lake Malibu near Agoura Hills, was a medical technician in the Navy and for ambulance companies in Utah and California before quitting to return to school while also working as an artist.

He said the rescue Wednesday was the most meaningful of his medical experiences.

“This was totally different,” he said. “It was something that happened right in front of me. It was like a dream. But it was something I had to do. I’m not a hero. I just did what I had to do.

“It makes it a neat Christmas,” he added. “I could have left my wife a widow and my boy without a father by running out there, but I’m still here. So is the man who jumped, even though he thought he didn’t want to be.

“I hope things work out for him now.”