COTO DE CAZA, CA — Last week, a torrential rainstorm blew through Orange County, drowning roads and stalling out motorists. The driving conditions were treacherous as Evan Crocker, 21, of Coto De Caza, watched the car in front of him spin out of control and over the side.
“He pulled over immediately to help the woman driver,” his mother told us.
Then, a second car careened out of control toward them, pinning him between the vehicles. The force crushed his body, breaking bones.
Orange County Fire Authority emergency responders had difficulty extricating him from the nightmarish collision. Amid blood, mud and rain, his case was grim, according to his mother.
“(Evan’s) legs were crushed between the two cars, below the knees at the calves,” his mother said. Compound breaks caused his blood levels to plummet, she said.
His injury list was long, she told Patch. Now he is learning the length of rehabilitation in his future. He has undergone multiple surgeries, faces over eight weeks in the hospital and concerns of infection.
However, he wouldn’t change a thing to help someone in need, she said.
“When I heard he pulled over to help a woman, I thought, ‘Of course he did,'” she said.
The road towards recovery is long and overwhelming, but already friends, neighbors, and supporters have donated more than $7,000 to his GoFundMe page.
“I am determined to walk out of here, and I will do whatever it takes to do that,” Evan Crocker said.
According to family and friends, he is always the one to offer help to those in need. From standing up to bullies in elementary school, to the off-road group he belongs to that helps stranded motorists, “that’s just his personality,” according to his mother.
“Every time I wake up, I have the urge to fight for my legs and my life,” he said in an update on his GoFundMe page. “There isn’t a single one of you I wouldn’t have stopped to help that day, because that is what it is all about.”
For more information, visit www.gofundme.com/evan.
Photo courtesy of GoFundMe; GoFundMe is a Patch Promotional Sponsor