Paramedic Aids Injured Driver

An observant paramedic came to the aid of an injured motorist who apparently had walked away from the scene after crashing into a tree on a freeway offramp Sunday night.

At 8:15 p.m., the California Highway Patrol received a call about a car that had run into a tree on the northbound offramp of the Ventura Freeway at Rancho Conejo Boulevard.

One of the people who heard the call over the police scanner was 25-year-old Robert Snyder, a paramedic supervisor with MedTrans Ambulance, who was having dinner at a nearby restaurant on West Hillcrest Drive.

“I’m there and I see this Latino male walking on Hillcrest, blood dripping down his face,” Snyder said.

He tried to help the unidentified man, who looked to be in his late 20s, but had little success because the man would not cooperate, Snyder said.

The man had lacerations on his face and arms and injuries to his chest, he said.

Snyder called MedTrans headquarters and requested an ambulance. The man was taken by ambulance to Columbia Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks.