11-year old Parker Greenwood is credited with caring with the other passengers after the accident

Four Very Lucky Kids
Overcorrection sends pickup tumbling and kids to the hopsital
by Jennifer Binning

Last Wednesday evening at three minutes till five o'clock, Sublette County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Streeter was dispatched to the scene of an accident approximately 3.6 miles west of County Road 23-117 on North Cottonwood.

Upon arrival, Deputy Streeter observed a single vehicle rollover involving a black 1987 Chevy pickup. Sargent Bardy Bardin and Deputy Gene Bryson told Deputy Streeter that there were four occupants in the truck at the time of the accident, and he assisted EMT's with the loading of two of the occupants.

All four passengers in the truck were transported to the Marbleton medical clinic, where an 11-year-old boy from Big Piney, later identified as Parker Greenwood, was treated and released. The other occupants, 14-year-old Bridget Sparks of Marbleton and the younger of two brothers, aged 11 and 17 also from Marbleton, were transported by Air Idaho to the Idaho Regional Medical Center. The older brother was transported to St. Johns Hospital in Jackson Hole. Both boys were thrown from the truck. The younger of two was allegedly driving at the time of the accident, and suffered "a concussion and a scraped up head" according to his brother, who was still convalescing in Jackson with a broken clavicle and rib.

The older brother had allowed his younger sibling to drive his pickup on the North Cottonwood dirt road. Apparently the youngster, who was driving around 50 mph, overcorrected the vehicle, causing it to skid about 160 feet and roll over several times. No one in the truck was wearing a seatbelt, and the two brothers were ejected from the vehicle and were severely injured. The other two occupants were thrown about the inside of the cab and incurred minor injuries.

Miss Sparks recalls being shaken awake by Parker Greenwood, who helped her get out of the truck. She looked around for her friends and saw that they were conscious but unresponsive. While Parker looked after the injured brothers, Bridget ran for help.

While she was running, Bridget was seen by Bret Argyle of Randolph, Utah who had been checking his cattle on a grazing allotment on North Cottonwood. When Mr. Argyle and his party caught up to Bridget, she had run well over a mile through the sagebrush trying to find help, "she was pretty shaken up, and about half in shock," he said. Mr. Argyle immediately called Ross Copeland who lives nearby, and he telephoned the Pinedale EMS.

As Mr. Argyle approached the scene of the accident, he "saw the older boy lying in the brush not moving, and the little guy was lying in the barrow ditch being tended to by Parker Greenwood. He is about as level headed a kid as I have ever seen," Mr. Argyle continues, "He had his shirt off and was trying to stop the blood from his friend's head. I was really impressed that he had not panicked."

Mr. Argyle, his son Chase, and two companions, Jody and Marilyn Muir, jumped out of the truck to help. "The kids were in shock, and we were trying to keep them warm. Marilyn is an EMT, and she was a huge help," Mr. Argyle adds.

Within minutes, people began to show up to lend a hand, "I guess they all had scanners or something, because we had about a dozen people on the scene bringing blankets, jackets, whatever to help out."

The Pinedale EMS arrived and loaded up the brothers into two ambulances, while Parker Greenwood's parents located the parents of the injured boys and drove their son and Miss. Sparks to the Marbleton Clinic.

For her part, Suzanne Greenwood "cannot sing the praises of our volunteers and EMT's enough." She notes that even though the ambulances came from Pinedale, the EMT's took the injured kids to the Marbleton clinic, because their parents were on the way to Marbleton from LaBarge and they wanted the parents reunited with the children as soon as possible.

When told of how her son Parker was able to keep his head in a very stressful situation where even the adults were on the verge of hysteria, Ms. Greenwood quietly acknowledges her son's strength of character, with just a hint of parental pride.

All four accident victims were on the mend on Monday, with only the older brother remaining in the hospital, and all four were definitely feeling the effects of a multiple rollover.

Mr. Argyle was relieved to hear that most of the children were home, and noted that he had seen a big roll bar on the truck, which he suspects may have saved the kids lives. When he heard that one of the children had moaned in pain when he accidentally laughed and hurt himself, the relief is evident in his voice when he said that when he first saw the accident "I didn't know if they would ever laugh again."