A group of Mountain View High School students rendered first aid to a Camas teenager badly hurt in a car crash Saturday night while they waited for emergency medical personnel.
Senior Grant Moog, 18, said their timing was a miracle. He was out driving with friends — sophomore Grace Akers, 16, and senior Matt Ferguson, 18 — when they were pulled over. They were drifting, Moog said, and got a ticket.
The three then returned to Ferguson’s house to switch vehicles before going on their way to do some hot-tubbing, Moog said.
He said he was driving east on Southeast Cascade Park Drive in Vancouver when he saw a vehicle pulled over with flashing hazard lights and what looked like a wheel in the roadway near 31st Way.
They pulled up and found a red GMC Envoy wrapped around a tree.
They inspected the crash and found Rhyan Montovino, 16, stuck inside and bleeding heavily from a head wound, Moog said.
Moog gleaned some first-aid experience during his time in the fire cadet program at Clark County Fire District 6. Grace called 911, and Moog turned to Ferguson.
“Throw on a pair of gloves with me, it’s not going to be good,” he said.
Rhyan was conscious but not responsive, Moog said. Moog and Fergus were able to climb far enough inside the wreckage to apply some gauze, taken from Moog’s first aid kit, and pressure to Rhyan’s injuries.
Police and medical personnel responded at about 11:20 p.m., according to the Vancouver Police Department. Vancouver police spokeswoman Kim Kapp said it appeared to arriving officials that the vehicle had been traveling at a high rate of speed. Paramedics arrived shortly after, Moog said, and took over.
Firefighters removed Rhyan from the vehicle, and he was taken to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center. He was listed in serious condition Monday afternoon.
Moog and his friends have twice visited Rhyan and his family since the crash. The family told Moog and his friends that they were glad the three were out on that road Saturday night, he said.
Rhyan seems to be doing well, Moog said.
“He’s awake and talking now. He’s making a real good recovery,” he said.
At the scene of the crash, Rhyan appeared to have lost a lot of blood, Moog said. God must have played a role in the circumstances that brought them to the crash that night, he said.
Moog said he had to take a break from the cadet program, but he intends to go to school to become a paramedic and, ultimately, get a fire science degree.
Police are investigating the crash, Kapp said.
