Fredericksburg.com - 'Miracle Man' knows he's lucky to be alive

It happens occasionally. My wife calls in midafternoon to warn me that she's stuck in traffic on Interstate 95, and I may be needed to ferry a child here or there if things don't improve in a hurry.

That was the case a year ago on Tuesday, June 17. Just as she called at about 2:30, the chatter picked up on the police scanner: An accident with injuries southbound at Exit 130 was going to require a helicopter evacuation, and traffic would be halted while that took place.

Like many people's, my initial reaction was more selfish annoyance than concern.

My desk in the newsroom sits about four feet from that of police reporter Ellen Biltz, who that afternoon would try to piece together, from police and eyewitness accounts, what had happened. What we knew: A man had driven off the road, hit a tree, and stumbled, disoriented, out of his car onto I–95, where he was struck by a tractor–trailer. The man's identity was unavailable for the next morning's Page 1 story, but his injuries were said to be severe.

Biltz followed up the next day, trying to put a name to the victim. On the phone, she repeated the name back to police: Albert Francis Fehrens. What? That's Al, I thought. A neighbor. Our son's basketball coach. Husband, father of three. A family man's family man. Oh, my God.

—Richard Amrhine

Last year's was a special one for him. His daughter, Catherine, had written one of the prize-winning essays for The Free Lance-Star's Town & County magazine on why her dad deserved to go on the 10th annual Take Dad Fishing for Father's Day trip. The two spent that Sunday, June 15, together fishing on the Chesapeake Bay.

The next day, coincidentally, Al and his wife, Mary, marked their 18th wedding anniversary. A "Happy Anniversary" sign was hung on a kitchen wall in their Spotsylvania County home.

The next morning, Tuesday, with the kids out of school for the summer, Fehrens could make his way to work at Geico earlier than usual, and get done a little earlier, too.

After work he headed home as usual, down U.S. 17 to Interstate 95. As he reached Exit 130 (State Route 3), he ran off the roadway and struck a tree. The only reason anyone can come up with is that he dozed off behind the wheel.

Dazed by the accident, he unbuckled his seat belt and stumbled from his car--into the right lane of I-95.

An approaching trucker saw the accident and slowed his rig, but wasn't expecting the driver to step into his path. The tractor-trailer, moving at an estimated 40 mph, struck Fehrens on his left side, tossing him onto the pavement ahead.

Southbound traffic was stopped by police, and a medevac helicopter was summoned to carry Fehrens to Inova Fairfax Hospital's trauma center.

The truck had to be towed from the scene, disabled in the collision with grille and radiator damage.

Mary Fehrens, who a week earlier would have been at Riverbend High School, where she teaches marketing, answered the phone at home. Al had been in an accident and was at the hospital in Fairfax. It didn't really compute why he would be in Fairfax when there is a perfectly good hospital right here. But she notified neighbors and headed north.

At the hospital, there was good news with the bad. "All of his major organs were good--his brain, heart, kidneys, spinal cord, nervous system all were intact," she said.

'Miracle Man' knows he's lucky to be alive

Spotsylvania man survives accident to enjoy another Father's Day

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