By Sharon Turco
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Relieved and largely unhurt after their freeway ordeal, Walter and Jamie Coman sit in their Park Hills home Friday. From left, their children are Whitney, 10; Jeannie, 12; Marquis Whalen, 5; and Dominique, 11. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

Walter Coman watched in horror as a semi's trailer came smashing onto the car's front half, crushing it.

As glass flew into his eyes, he worried only about his wife, Jamie, who was at the wheel of their car during the Thursday afternoon accident on Fort Washington Way.

He even momentarily forgot about his 5-year-old son, Marquis Whalen, who was asleep in the back seat.

"I thought she was dead," said Coman, 37, speaking from his Park Hills, Ky. apartment Friday. "I was screaming and yelling and she was silent."

"All I knew was that if she was dead, then I wanted to die, too," Coman said.

Finally, Jamie Coman said she was OK. And Marquis spoke up, too, asking for his Incredible Hulk action figure that had fallen on the floor. He, too, was OK.

The Comans, home from the hospital Friday, said they have a new outlook on life.

"God's hand was on us," Walter Coman said. "He spared us for a reason.

"I don't know what for, maybe to be a better husband, a better father, a better co-worker, or maybe to inspire people. I just know God has his reasons."

Jamie Coman, 25, called their survival a "miracle."

They suffered only cuts and bruises. Somebody who didn't see the crash - or the picture that appeared on the front page of Friday's Enquirer - would never even know they'd been in a serious car wreck.

Jamie Coman has a Band-Aid on her right arm. Marquis has just a scratch on the back of his neck.

The Comans had driven to Cincinnati to pick up Walter Coman's paycheck from the restaurant where he works and were on their way back to Kentucky to pick up their three young daughters from a youth center when the crash happened.

They were westbound on Fort Washington Way just west of Elm Street when Jamie veered off to the right shoulder, almost striking the wall, according to Cincinnati police. She overcorrected and lost control, running her Nissan Sentra under the trailer pulled by a truck driven by Orien Hughes, who was hauling Toyota parts in the next lane over.

The front end of the car smashed in on the couple, Jamie forced on top of her husband.

"I didn't even see it coming," said Hughes, 54, of Fairborn, Ohio. "I just felt something under my wheels."

He looked down and saw the crumpled car, Walter Coman hanging out of it.

Hughes, a 30-year veteran of the road, stopped his rig and ran to help.

His knees hurt - the force of the accident had pushed him into the dashboard - but otherwise he was OK.

"Get my little boy," Hughes heard Jamie Coman call out as he approached the car.

Hughes smashed in the side window, scooping the child into his arms.

"He never cried or made a peep," Hughes said. "He must have been scared out of his mind."

Officers found Jamie Coman at fault for the crash, citing her for failure to control, according to the police report.

There were lots of hugs in the Coman family Friday. Jeannie Coman, 12, the couple's daughter, says she's just happy her parents survived.

Walter Coman said the crash made him realize the importance of saying I love you, and never staying angry.

"You don't plan on having an accident, or know when the day ahead could be your last," he said.

E-mail sturco@enquirer.com