He had just stopped to help a motorist in danger when he looked up to see an 18-wheeler bearing down on him.

        Jamie Burkhead was close to tears Wednesday reliving the moment Saturday afternoon on Interstate 75 in Covington when he realized a semi-tractor trailer truck was about to hit him.

Jamie Burkhead suffered three broken bones and a gash in his foot when he was hit by a truck on I-75. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        “As long as I live, I'll never forget it,” the 28-year-old Georgetown, Ky., man said, his voice cracking and his injured right leg and foot propped up on pillows at University Hospital.

        “I can still see the front of that truck almost on top of me.”

        Mr. Burkhead stopped his vehicle to help a woman whose car had just spun on wet pavement coming down the stretch of I-75 known as the “cut in the hill” and struck the concrete median.

        That woman, Phyllis Battistella of Kenwood, called Mr. Burkhead her “guardian angel.”

        “I had jumped out of my car when I saw him pull up ahead of me and stop,” she said. “Then I saw the terror in his face and turned to see the semi coming at me. I was able to run out of the way.

        “I'm convinced if I had not gotten out of the way I would have been killed. He saved me. For anyone to pull over and try to help is wonderful.”

        Ms. Battistella, 34, works in Hebron and drives I-75 through Northern Kentucky at least five times a week to and from her home. She said the accident started when another semi slammed on its brakes going down the hill.

        “It was raining,,” she said, “and the water from his tires seemed to push under my car (a Geo Prizm) and it hydroplaned. I crossed all four (northbound) lanes from the inside to the outside and hit the concrete wall.”

        Mr. Burkhead, on his way to a business meeting at the Kings Island Inn in Mason, saw the accident.

        “It appeared she was slumped over the steering wheel. It just seemed that stopping to help was the right thing to do,” he said, before shaking his head in disbelief.

        “I try to be a good Samaritan, and I get hit by a semi coming down the highway in the lane where trucks aren't supposed to be. If not for the grace of God, I wouldn't be here now.”

        To make matters worse, Mr. Burkhead said, he has no medical insurance and faces two months of rehabilitation after he leaves the hospital — with no means of paying.

        He is self-employed in marketing. Being out of work means he makes no money.

        The report from Covington Police says that after Ms. Battistella's car hit the median wall and Mr. Burkhead pulled over, a Freightliner driven by Raymond Chappell of Scottsville, Ky., slowed as it approached and was struck from the rear by another Freightliner, driven by Christopher Bess of Austin, Texas.

        Mr. Chappell's truck then struck Ms. Battistella's car, knocking it out of the way, before striking Mr. Burkhead and his car, which was totaled.

        “I was sitting here (at home) today thinking about how those trucks fly up and down that hill, and I've gotten very angry,” Ms. Battistella said. “Something should be done. The accident Saturday almost killed two people just because someone tried to be a good Samaritan.”

        Mr. Burkhead said he has at least three broken bones and a severe gash in his right foot that may require a third bout of surgery today at University Hospital.

        “One of those trucks was carrying about 80,000 pounds of dog food, and both trucks were traveling in the outside high-speed lane where they didn't belong,” he said. “There has to be more policing of that portion of the highway.”

        Police diagrams indicate the tractor-trailers were traveling in the left lane, next to the median.

        Covington Police Lt. Col. James Lile said the accident was under investigation. Two other vehicles were involved, but neither driver was injured.
       

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