Ryan O’Donnell just wanted to spend a Sunday at the beach.
He worked out at the gym that morning – July 26 - before he got on the road, heading to New Jersey to meet up with his two sisters.
That workout is an important piece of the day’s events for O’Donnell because it delayed his trip. What if he hadn’t been on the Pennsylvania Turnpike at the right time? Who would have been at the scene of a horrific car crash to pull the two survivors from their cars?
Those questions ran through his mind later that Sunday as he drove home to Lebanon, bleeding, covered in soot and exhausted. He never made it to the beach.
What if? O’Donnell, 27, had his cruise control set to 70 on the turnpike as he headed east. Just as he was approaching the Valley Forge exit, a car passed on the left.
“Man, that guy’s going pretty fast,” he thought, as he looked down for a second to change the music in his car.
When he looked up, he saw a collision. The car that had passed him then rear-ended a vehicle with a man and woman in it, then swerved off the road and hit a tree, according to a Pennsylvania State Police report.