As I stepped out of my car into the cold night air, I was trembling. Only, it wasn't the cold breeze blowing over my face that had every hair on my body perked up or why I needed to brace myself against my car to prevent my shivering legs from collapsing underneath me. I dug around my pockets for what seemed like a minute before I was able to grasp my cell phone in my hands and shakily guide my fingers to a number I've known my whole life, but one I never thought I would ever need to use.

I'd read a hundred times in some form or another the proper way to respond to a crisis situation. I'd been asked it in interviews and learned it in training classes for different jobs throughout my life. Although all crises are uniquely different, there are simple steps that encompass all situations.

1. Stay calm
2. Assess the situation
3. Gather the necessary information
4. Respond accordingly

These steps seem easy enough, and in a 'Mickey Mouse' type of crisis, they are simple enough to implement. But when there is a real crisis, ie. a 'life and death' type of crisis, would they still seem so simple? Would these steps be the first things to come to you? As my phone rang and I waited anxiously for the person on the other end of the line to pick up, these four steps were the furthest things from my mind.

"9-1-1, what's your emergency?"

"Oh my God. There's been an accident."

"Sir are you ok? Were you involved in the accident?"

"No, no I'm ok. It happened right in front of me though. The car...it just lost control...it crashed into the divide. You have to get someone out here. Oh Jesus Christ. I don't think he's alive. He's just lying there."

"Sir, who's lying there? What is your location?"

"I'm on 101. Oh my God. The driver of the truck, he's not moving. He's in the fuckin' middle of the road. Jesus Christ, the traffic isn't stopping."

"Sir, I need you to calm down. Sir, what lane is he in?"

"Umm, I don't know, he's in the fuckin' middle of the road. Umm, next to the fast lane I guess. These people are fuckin' maniacs, they're not slowing down. They're going to hit him!"

I hadn't expected traffic to start racing past me, I just assumed they would see his car blocking the fast lane and slow down to a crawl. But his car battery had been flung from the car, and so his wrecked truck sat as dark and motionless as he did on the cold pavement of the highway. As the traffic had picked up, and three cars zoomed past literally missing the man by inches, his motionless body stared over at where I was standing on the side of the road. He was less than 10 feet away from me. I ran out into the slow lane of the freeway while waving my hands at the oncoming traffic.

"Fuckin' Stop! Slow the fuck down! Stop!!!"

The traffic kept coming, and every new car that showed up in the fast lane would swerve out of the way just barely missing his truck, and careen through the wreckage strewn across the highway and just barely miss the man's body. As I screamed at the traffic to stop, some people involved in the accident that had crashed up ahead of the man's car ran over in my direction.

As the guys came up to me asking for flares, I started screaming at them that this man's body was in the road and that I didn't know if he was alive or not. They hadn't noticed his body among the wreckage, but one of them did what I had not been able to and ran over when the traffic had abated slightly and checked the man's pulse.

"I couldn't feel a pulse," he uttered.

I was still on line with the 911 operator, but I had no idea what she was saying.

"Jesus Christ. I think he's dead. You've got to get someone out here. They're going to fuckin' run him over."

Just then a car racing down the fast lane swerved out of the way of the truck, slightly clipping it's side. As the driver swerved to regain control of his car, he plowed through the wreckage and over the man's body. I turned away as I knew what was about to occur, but the 'thump-thump' of the car's tires running over the man's body echoed into the stale night air.

"Oh my fuckin' God! Oh my God. They just ran him over. They just fuckin' ran him over! He's dead. Oh my God, he's dead."

"Sir calm down. The police are on their way. I need for you to confirm your location. Are you at the 101 and the Whipple exit?"

"Oh my God. They killed him. Slow the fuck down! Fuckin' stop!"

Even though the man was most likely dead, I was still out in the middle of the slow lane waving at on coming traffic trying to make them slow down. It was then that another car while swerving through the debris at 60 mph, ran over the man's body again.

I was mumbling obscenities and "Oh my God's" to the 911 operator for a few more minutes until I remember her taking my name and then hanging up. I was in utter shock at the events that had just transpired. Finally someone was able to get the traffic to stop. People were getting out of their cars and walking over to the wreckage along the side of the road where my car was parked. I was facing away from the scene and what was left of the man's body splattered across the highway.

"Oh my God, is that a body?" someone inquired.

I just kind of nodded my head, completely disgusted at these people reveling in this man's death and his mutilated body. The police and ambulance finally arrived and I made a statement of some sort to several police officers, since I was the first on the scene and had witnessed the entire events. As I recalled what had happened, I kept seeing the man's motionless body lying in the road even though he was now covered with a tarp.

When I had first witnessed this man's car swerving across the highway and then slamming into the middle divide, I had immediately pulled my car over to see if someone needed help. I knew I had drank a beer a few hours earlier that night, and although I was completely capable of driving, the terms of my DUI probation mandate that I only operate a motorized vehicle with a 0.0 BAC; but I didn't hesitate. Additionally, my insurance is renewed every 6 months and I rotate coverage from my SUV to my sports car when the renewal comes. The insurance on the car I was driving had ended at midnight, two hours before these events had unfolded; but I didn't hesitate. I wasn't sure if the police where going to ask me for this information when they arrived, but it wouldn't have mattered. When you know you have a chance to save someone's life, everything else just seems insignificant in comparison.

I wish I could have done more for that man lying in the middle of the road. Even though he didn't have a pulse, I wish we would have moved him out of the road, just in case the paramedics might have been able to revive him. I wonder how things would have been different if he did have a pulse and one of those first cars careening through the wreckage had hit him when I was the only one on the scene. When it comes down to it, I didn't hesitate to stop to help, but I didn't have what it took to stay calm, assess the situation, and take control. When it really matters, would you?