Jessy Eliason ad Liv Roste were at the gas station and left their car at the pump to run and help.

(JENNA WHEELER / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - A crash on the Halston Connecter this weekend left no injuries, but made an impact on many of the people involved.

The three-car accident happened at about 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 15. One of the cars involved belonged to Karly Mulhall, who was driving with her two young children. She was rear-ended, pushed into the intersection, and hit again on the driver’s side by an SUV.

Mulhall made a post on a local Facebook group to thank all the people who worked quickly to help her and her children.

Mulhall thanked the people who helped her in Facebook post.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK- Karly Mulhall

Liv Roste and her boyfriend Jessy Eliason were two of the first people who helped the family and others involved in the accident.

The couple were fuelling up their truck before a fishing trip with a friend. They say their friend made the quick fuel stop last a little longer by encouraging them to put some engine cleaner and an octane boost in their truck. The couple stayed at the gas station an extra five minutes, and in those minutes they witnessed the crash.

“I just saw the poof of a cloud and saw her running,” Eliason says. “There was a giant cloud of glass, fluids, and (dust).”

Roste said her instincts made her throw an iced capp to her partner and take off running to help the victims. The couple were two of the first people on scene and helped to get Mulhall and her two young children out of the car. They say there were about forty people at the scene ready to help.

“It seems like everyone who was fuelling up, getting snacks, or just basic gas station needs, just all dropped their stuff and booked it,” Eliason says.

The couple say they are both very calm, level-minded people, the kind of people who you would want to help with an emergency. Roste is in school to become a social worker, and Eliason says he usually has a very unemotional, logical response to difficult situations.

“Pulling kids out of that car really threw me off. I don’t usually show any emotion, I’m very monotone usually, so I didn’t really get a spike of adrenaline that most people do... but it really sunk in once I saw the kids in the backseat, because that’s the next generation,” he says.

Mulhall says she, her 1-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son had just stopped at Tim Horton’s while on their way to a birthday party. She has been in a car accident before but says it was much more scary since her kids were involved.

“We weren’t rear-ended, we were smashed into,” Mulhall says.

As soon as the accident happened, Mulhall says she was yelling for people to get her children out of the car. She couldn’t get to her kids in the backseat, because she injured her back and was cut and covered in glass on her arms and legs.

“I just remember they weren’t seriously injured, but that was all I was asking about,” Mulhall says. Her children were taken out of the vehicle and cared for by Roste and Eliason.

“In my mind, it's just about helping whoever is bleeding,” says Roste. “So I focused on the toddler, made sure he was okay, and (Eliason) took the baby.”

The toddler had a glass fragment in his face below the eye. Roste has recently taken a first aid course specifically for infants and toddlers, and knew to keep the piece in until paramedics arrived.

“Within the first one to two minutes after arriving on scene, we got one of the kids out,” Eliason says. “It was right to business. We knew what we needed to do.”

Eliason made sure the baby girl was okay, and then began to comfort her. After calming her, he called out for someone to hold the infant so he could help others.

The children’s mother was still in the car, and the couple knew they had to get her out next. She was trapped, but accompanied by a nurse who happened to be at the scene.

“A respiratory nurse hopped in the passenger seat trying to calm me down, because I couldn’t move since there was glass everywhere,” Mulhall says.

Although she knew her kids weren’t seriously injured, she just wanted to be with them.

“She was in such a panic to see her kids,” Roste says. “It was just like, get her out as fast as we can so she can be with her kids.”

Eliason says that the driver side door was impossible to open since the door and frame were bent. He says an onlooker ran to his car and grabbed a six foot long steel rod, and Eliason and four other men began prying open the door.

Mulhall was helped out of the vehicle by Eliason and a few other men who walked her to the curb to be with her children. They say although she was shaken and had minor injuries, she and her children were able to be together out of harm's way within minutes of the crash.

“My son was pretty calm, he was just worried about me and making sure I was okay,” Mulhall says. “He was really shaken up, but his biggest concern was that I was OK.”

The young woman in the SUV was still trapped in her vehicle. The couple say her car had spun out and she became pinned against a light post.

It wasn’t possible for the men to pry open the door and fluids were leaking from her vehicle. Roste stayed with the woman and tried to calm her until help arrived.

“When I walked over to her, I noticed she was covered in blood but we couldn’t find out where it was coming from,” Roste says.

She says there were glass fragments around her ear and face that was causing the bleeding. The young woman, who Roste guesses is in her mid-20s, remained relatively calm throughout the situation.

“She understood what was going on and that there were other people involved,” Roste says. “The first thing she asked me is ‘is everyone else OK?’”

Roste says she may have had a broken or injured ribs, but it is unsure of her condition.

“She reached around for her phone, and I think she called a family member. The first thing out of her mouth was ‘I’ve been in a bad accident, can you meet me at the hospital?’”

The couple says the young woman had to be removed from her vehicle by the jaws of life once the firefighters arrived.

The people in the car that had rear-ended the Mulhall’s were winded, but walked out unharmed.

Mulhall and her children have stayed at home with family over the last few days, content to stay off the roads for a while.

Roste says there were five police cars, two fire trucks, and four ambulances on scene.

“There was a lot of people standing around dazed and stunned,” says Eliason. “Seeing that much damage done to a vehicle, its a stunning view.”

Image Credit: Liv Roste

After helping to rescue and calm the women and children, the couple and their friend continued about their day.

“Afterwards, we went fishing,” Eliason says. “My buddy brought out a 1922 cigar and we were sitting in the back of his truck talking about the event, and talking about everyone’s view and how they felt.”

Although they were slightly shaken, they enjoyed a day on the water, and were grateful for the events unfolding without major injuries.

“All of us caught a fish. Everyone had a good day after.”

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