Bedford Times-Mail
HURON
It was an exciting day for 21-year-old Brook Neidige and her infant son as they were heading to Washington to visit family members June 5.
Their car was packed with overnight supplies ahead of the nearly two-hour trek west from their home in Seymour.
Then the unthinkable happened.
Neidige, reaching for her ringing cellphone, veered off the side of the highway near the U.S. 50 and State Road 60 split near Huron. Her tires hit the gravel on the side of the newly paved highway. She overcorrected, and her car went careening off the side of the road, rolling several times until it came to rest against a concrete culvert.
Neidige ended up in the backseat next to her now 11-month-old son, Quillon. As the dust from the deployed airbags flew around the vehicle, she thought it was on fire. Despite trying to keep herself composed and calm for her son, Neidige began to “freak out.”
Then two Good Samaritans showed up. The man, listed on the accident report as Isaac Grant, freed her son from his car seat. The child was mostly uninjured. Turns out, he had only bit his lip.
Neidige, however, wasn’t as lucky. She couldn’t be moved from the vehicle, so Grant asked her if he could take the child back to his vehicle for the air conditioning. The woman who was with Grant took care of the baby, Neidige said, going as far as changing his diaper and getting all of the personal items out of the vehicle before it was towed.
“She asked me to unlock my phone and asked if there was anyone she could call for me, so I told her my mom,” Neidige said. “She called my mom to tell me what happened. … I was scared to death, and I’m not a person who is frightened easily. It was almost like I saw my life flash before my eyes.”
Neidige and Quillon were transported by ambulance to IU Health Bedford Hospital, then transferred to IU Health Bloomington Hospital. From Bloomington, Neidige was taken to IU Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, where she underwent surgery to fix a shattered heel bone in her foot as well as a punctured Achilles tendon.
The pair of Good Samaritans stayed with the two until they were transported away from the accident scene.
“They are the real heroes in all of this,” Neidige said. “I want to thank them personally and tell them I appreciate everything they’ve done and what they did for me and my baby. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know what would’ve happened. What if nobody had stopped? I can’t even think about it, but they were so calm and did everything they could to help us until help arrived.”
Neidige would like to find the man and the woman who, according to the police report, were traveling behind her on U.S. 50 West. However, Grant’s address on the police report is incomplete, and the phone number listed doesn’t appear to be a working number. Neidige first turned to Facebook for assistance but has yet to reach the man and woman who helped keep her calm during the crisis.
“I’ve never been in an accident this bad before, so I was pretty shook up,” Neidige said. “Those two people are a blessing, a complete blessing. They were so brave and were willing to spend that time calming us down, taking care of my baby when I couldn’t and making sure we were OK until EMS arrived.”
Neidige said the man and woman are welcome to reach her at 812-569-9865 or they can find her on Facebook at Brook Brianna Neidige.
“I really just want to find them and say thanks,” Neidige said.