Myrna McMahan Correspondent
January 19, 2001, Friday
Copyright 2001 Chattanooga Publishing Company
Chattanooga Times / Chattanooga Free Press
January 19, 2001, Friday
(TRENTON, Ga.) -- Dade County Detention Officer Danny Ellis has a special reason for believing in guardian angels.
Two of them saved his life, he said Thursday.
The officer’s patrol car was struck head-on by a wrecker truck about 3 p.m. Sunday on Sand Mountain Highway 301, with the collision killing the truck driver and leaving Officer Ellis injured and unconscious in his burning vehicle.
Flames were engulfing the patrol car when the officer, still unconscious and strapped into his driver’s seat, was rescued with some difficulty by two men. Using a pocketknife to cut the seat belt, they managed to drag him out the window, saving him from a fiery death.
“Mike Coleman and Bernard Schultz showed extra courage in quickly removing me from what was to be a burning death,” Officer Ellis said Thursday. “Leonard Shelton and Arlis Hartline came to my rescue as well.”
The injured man, who had been on his way to the police academy in Cave Springs, Ga., to train for the patrol division of the sheriff’s department, suffered a fractured hand and kneecap, and various abrasions and contusions in the accident.
“I woke up in the hospital with no memory of anything except the impact and shattering glass,” he said.
Now recuperating at home, the 46-year-old Sand Mountain resident held a news conference Thursday to publicly thank fire and rescue personnel, his fellow officers, family members and friends “for all the help and prayers I have received.” He also thanked Erlanger personnel.
“A very special thanks to Mike, Bernard, Leonard and Arlis ... I feel God has used these men to allow me to be here today.”
Dade County Sheriff Philip Street also commended the men, saying it is a “miracle Danny is not in Erlanger’s burn unit, and is alive.”
The truck driver, Ronald Tishaw, 44, a Trenton resident, died at the scene. Sheriff Street said his blood alcohol level was .32, “which is astronomical. I knew Ronald ... He was a good person when he wasn’t under the influence.”
Mike Colemen really is a good Samaritan, the sheriff further stated. “He previously pulled another man out of a burning car following a wreck.”
Officer Ellis extended his condolences to Mr. Tishaw’s family. “I hold no ill feelings, and I hope this family feels the same way. May God continue to bless all the families involved.
“I fell very lucky to be alive. I have a message -- don’t drink and drive.”
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