ABERDEEN, Md. — The crash scene in Newark, Delaware shows the magnitude of the head-on collision caused by an alleged drunk driver, which nearly ended the life of Acting Corporal James Haddix of the Aberdeen Police Department.
“Got out on the scene. Saw the crash site, and it was horrific. The cars were completely destroyed. Front end damage was extensive,” said Aberdeen Police Capt. C. William Reiber, “It took 45 minutes of extricate Acting Corporal James Haddix from the vehicle. It was hard to imagine that somebody could survive something that looked like that.”
Haddix was on his way to work where a promotion that same day would have had him supervising his first shift.
He had already won over the community with his visits to schools, his life-saving efforts to rescue a bird on the side of the highway and taking in an injured cat, paying its bills out of his own pocket and adopting it.
The Army veteran and father of five was already directing his own care by the time he arrived at the hospital.
“Officer Haddix was amazing,” said Reiber, “I mean for being in the condition that he was in, suffering from severe injuries, broken bones throughout the body, he wanted to go back to work right at that moment.”
Ironically, we’re told one of the reasons Haddix became a police officer is because his father was killed by a drunk driver when he was just seven years old.
Donations are now being accepted to help with his medical bills at a site called GiveSendGo to help the family of the man who has given so much of himself to others.
