By Lauren Lindstrom
The Blade
TOLEDO, Ohio — She didn’t know who he was.
When Evelyn Johnson stopped to check on the driver of a vehicle crashed into a pole Sunday afternoon, she didn’t do so because he was the mayor, she pulled over because it was the right thing to do.
Ms. Johnson was one of the first on the scene and performed emergency rescue measures on Mayor D. Michael Collins, who had a cardiac arrest while driving.
At the time, she had no clue who she was stopping to help.
Something about the scene didn’t look right, Ms. Johnson said.
Several cars drove past Mr. Collins’ sport utility vehicle, but Ms. Johnson, 42, who was driving the opposite way on Parkside Boulevard, turned around and approached the crash near the corner of Parkside and Hill Avenue.
Ms. Johnson said she didn’t see the crash but happened upon the scene while driving to work at Rally’s restaurant on Laskey Road.
The South Toledo resident, along with another man whose name she didn’t get, peered into the vehicle and saw a man unconscious.
His foot was still on the gas and the car was in drive. The engine was revving. He looked like a normal guy, coming from work with his workman’s overalls on, she said.
“It was just on my heart to turn around, turn around,” she said.
“We were banging on the window but he didn’t respond.”
They called 911 responders, who told her to get him out of the car by any means necessary.
Ms. Johnson had a hammer in the trunk — not something she normally has nearby, she said — and she and the other man broke the rear driver’s side window of the mayor’s vehicle.
The pair pulled him out and alternated performing CPR until paramedics arrived minutes later, she said.
Ms. Johnson had never performed CPR before, but listened to instructions over the phone.
It was paramedics who asked her: “Do you know this is the mayor?”
She didn’t.
“It scared me, but I did what was right,” said Ms. Johnson, a mother of eight and grandmother of five.
“I would hope if someone saw me hurt, my kids hurt, my grandkids, that they would do the same for me.
“He’s a father and he’s got grandkids and a wife. It felt natural to do it. It was all about saving that man’s life.”
Ms. Johnson said after the incident she spoke to Chief of Staff Robert Reinbolt, who thanked her and told her how appreciative he was for her quick thinking.
“I would do this for anyone regardless of who it is,” she said. “I’ve been at work all night worrying if he is OK. I’m just thankful we were able to help him.”
She said she thought earlier in the day that she wasn’t going to work because of the storm, but was called in.
“God put me in this path for a reason,” she said. “My prayers go out to him and his family.”
©2015 The Blade (Toledo, Ohio)