By Jessica Cejnar and Thadeus Greenson
The Times-Standard
FORTUNA, Calif. — A single-car crash on State Route 36 on Tuesday left a Fortuna man dead, but his two young children were pulled safely from the burning wreckage by a pair of Good Samaritans.
Jesus Galindo, 38, was driving westbound at about 2 p.m. on State Route 36 about one mile east of U.S. Highway 101 when he apparently lost control of his vehicle in the rain and collided with a power pole on the car’s driver side, killing him instantly, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Paul Dahlen. The collision also left Galindo’s car in flames, trapping his children, ages 3 and 6, inside.
Justin Johnson, 22, of Rio Dell, said he and a friend, Isaac Johnson, were driving back from a friend’s cabin when they came across the wreckage.
“There were a bunch of people just standing around,” Justin Johnson said, adding that people warned him to keep his distance because a power line had come down in the crash. “I kept on walking, and I started hearing some kids crying. I said, ‘Hey, there are kids in here.’”
Justin Johnson said others came to help when they heard children were in the burning car. He said he went to the rear driver’s side door of Galindo’s Lincoln sedan, which was mangled from the collision, and couldn’t get the door open. He said he then worked to pull Galindo’s son out the window, which had shattered.
The boy was almost all the way out of the car, Justin Johnson said, when his foot caught between his car seat and the car door.
“The fire was literally around the kid’s shoe,” he said. “His boot was stuck, so I stuck my hand into the flame to push the kid’s foot through.”
As Justin Johnson pulled the crying 3-year-old out of the car, he said, a woman came to the aid of the 6-year-old, pulling the girl out of the rear passenger-side door.
Justin Johnson said the kids were nicked, bruised and terrified from the collision, but otherwise OK. As for himself, Justin Johnson said, he singed some arm hair but wasn’t injured in the rescue.
Once the children were out of the burning car, Justin Johnson said he took the kids back to his friend’s truck while another passerby used a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze. Justin Johnson tried to calm the children down and keep them warm until they were taken for medical treatment.
Dahlen said the children were transported to Redwood Memorial Hospital, where they were treated for minor injuries.
Dahlen said everyone in the vehicle was wearing proper safety restraints and that there is no evidence drugs or alcohol were a factor in the crash, which remains under investigation. There’s also no indication Galindo was speeding, though Dahlen said it’s believed he was driving too fast for the wet conditions.
“Speed was a factor, but only because he lost control of his vehicle,” Dahlen said. “It doesn’t matter how fast he was going; it appears to have been an unsafe speed for the weather conditions.”
It’s unclear, Dahlen said, if the force of the collision caused the fire or if it was ignited by a power line that came down in the crash.
Tuesday evening, Justin Johnson was still reflecting on the crash and what compelled him to jump into action when the situation called for it.
“You just have to stand up and do something,” he said. “You can’t just sit around and be scared.”
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