“We’d like to throw him a dinner. He is our hero,” Latoya Slaton said of the young man who helped her 21-year-old twin sons after an accident on the South I-94 Service Drive early March 9.
After learning of a brief mention of the accident in the Independent, Slaton called the newspaper to find out who the hero was. She learned he was Michael Anderson, 23, of Swan Creek mobile home community in Ypsilanti Township.
Slaton reports one of her sons, Bryant Smith, suffered bruises and cut legs in the accident, but twin Ryan Smith is paralyzed from the neck down and confined to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.
A large prayer circle is praying for Ryan’s return to health, Slaton said.
Slaton said her sons, who live in the apartments behind the bowling alley, were on their way to work at Panera Breads on Washtenaw Ave. and pulled out of the apartment complex onto the service drive with Ryan at the wheel.
The car hit a patch of black ice and slid into a mailbox and then into an embankment and then slipped over onto its top, she said. They ended up almost in the parking lot of Diamondback Saloon.
Anderson said he left Belleville Road McDonald’s, where he works, at about 5:45 a.m. that morning and had to walk home to McKean Road in Ypsilanti Township, which usually takes 1½ hours.
He said Diamondback is about half way home for him. He remembers walking part way backwards, trying to avoid the bitter winds from the west on that cold morning. The remembers the icy conditions.
He said he saw the twins’ car exit the apartment complex because he was walking backward at the time. The car passed him and then he heard the crash. He turned around.
“I got to the driver’s side window and knocked on the glass, but there was no movement,” Anderson said. “I then went to the other side and tapped on the window. Bryant responded.
“He got himself out,” Anderson said.
Bryant told his mother that the car was upside down on its roof and they were hanging from their seatbelts. All the windows on the passenger side were shattered and Bryant got out of his seatbelt and told Ryan they had to get out, too, because he smelled gas.
Ryan was hanging by his seatbelt, too, and he told Bryant that he couldn’t feel his arms. Bryant crawled out the window, cutting his legs on the glass.
Then Bryant ran to his brother and got him out of the seatbelt. The two young men untangled him from the wreckage and pulled Ryan out of the car by his legs, LaToya said.
Anderson said they put him next to the car because they didn’t want to move him any further. They secured his neck, Anderson said.
At first, when he approached, Anderson was afraid the car would burst into flame because gasoline was everywhere, he said. But, then they felt it was safe to lay Ryan next to the car because the engine was off and they didn’t think fire would erupt.
LaToya said Anderson gave Bryant a blanket for Ryan. But Anderson said the person with the blanket actually was a passerby in the bright orange Dodge Caliber that stopped to help. That was a white couple. Then an older black male stopped to help.
After police arrived, Anderson felt unwelcome at the scene and continued the cold walk home, drenched in gasoline.
LaToya said police didn’t offer a blanket or anything to Bryant, who also was injured. Bryant told his mother he had to call 911 himself to get an ambulance.
The twins’ great aunt Brenda Slaton called the Independent from Chicago to ask that her thanks also be passed on to the young man who helped her great nephews. She’s been praying for Anderson, without knowing his name, since the accident.
She said although the doctors are not encouraging as to the paralysis, Brenda Slaton said Ryan is getting back some feeling in his body and they are all praying for his recovery.
“He’s getting better every day,” LaToya said on Sunday. His medical treatment is covered by Medicaid.
She, too, said she is grateful to Anderson who just appeared out of nowhere to help and then disappeared, as well as the others who helped.
She said the police report has many errors, including the statement that it was a rollover. It was not, she said, explaining the vehicle slipped over onto its top after hitting the embankment. Also, she said Anderson is never mentioned in the report at all, like he didn’t exist.
He did exist and he helped her sons, she said. No matter how he helped, he was there for her sons and she appreciates him very much, she said.
For those wishing to send cards, Ryan Smith is in Room 263, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, 5301 McAuley Dr., Ypsilanti, MI 48197.