Kevin Ash—"Miracle Man” If you take one look at Kevin today, you would never know that at approximately 11:10 P.M., on July 11, 2009, he was pinned down under a mess of mangled, shattered, twisted metal and glass, fighting for his very life. Other than a broken rib, a possible collapsed lung, and some severely bruised muscles and deep scratches, he looks relatively normal, for a young man who survived such a horrendous car accident. On this monotonous Saturday evening, Kevin was heading back from delivering a pizza order, on his way back to Domino’s Pizza, on Valley Blvd. He was just reaching the top of the hill, heading east, where the old “Fizzler” restaurant used to be, and when he crested it, there was a very large pickup truck in his lane, coming immediately towards him. Having no outlet to veer off into the other lane, due to oncoming traffic, and with very little room on his opposite side, due to a rather large dirt hill, Kevin tried to swerve right. It was inevitable, though, that it was going to be a head on collision. It was almost instantaneous! The Ford F150 (?) hit Kevin’s Geo Storm at approximately 40mph, the speed Kevin was also going. It mostly ran into the driver’s side of the car, and since it was a raised truck, it pretty much just climbed up right over his little car. The bumper of the truck was literally six inches from Kevin’s face. The driver’s side of the car was just plain gone, except for where he was sitting, and his chest was pinned down under the roof of the car because the tire of the truck was crushing it down into what was left of the cab of his car. The air bag deployed incorrectly, which was probably one of the factors that saved his life, as it veered off to one side, so he didn’t have any direct impact to his face and head. The steering wheel was knocked over to the opposite side of the car, pinning his arm underneath. The impact of the two vehicles was so severe, that when the driver of the truck tried to back up, he could not, as they were plainly adhesed together. The second car behind Kevin stopped, and an officer from the prison got out and immediately began to access the situation. After the emergency services had been contacted, she stayed with Kevin, talking to him, until the emergency services arrived. Due to the severity of the situation, and the fact that he could not move in any way, the “Jaws of Life” had to be brought in by the fire department, to pull Kevin out. This took at least ( )minutes to pull the cars apart enough to get him out of this mess. Of course, he was medivaced, by helicopter, to KMAC, one of our leading trauma centers, here in Kern County. Once they him stabilized, he stayed in the hospital for nearly two days, while they ran tests and monitored his vitals. By the end of the second day, he was released to go home, because of how well he was doing. The driver of the truck was arrested on (suspicions) drunk driving charges, and later released on bail, which brings me to my soap box. So here goes: If you are a teenager (or an adult, for that matter), and you are asked to get into a car with someone who has been drinking, I’m going to give you a little ammunition. If you e-mail me at my designated e-mail address on the Tehachapi News, I will send you a picture of the heap of metal that is now Kevin’s car. Save it to your cell phone, and flash it to the driver you DON’T want to get in the car with. Respond with these words, “I am NOT going with you because I am the “Miracle Man.” This in fact will be true, because you have chosen life over a possible horrible injury or even death. I WROTE THIS ARTICLE AFTER MY DAUGHTER'S NOW HUSBAND WAS HIT BY A DRUNK DRIVER AND NEARLY KILLED. AT THE TIME, THEY WERE JUST GOOD FRIENDS. SHORTLY AFTER HE BEGAN HIS RECOVERY, THEY STARTED DATING, AND THEY WERE MARRIED A LITTLE OVER THREE YEARS LATER~