Sportscaster thrown into oncoming traffic after RV hits freeway median

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. - A sports broadcaster says it was a miracle that he survived a crash that left him thrown out of the RV he was riding in when the vehicle hit the center divider.

It happened around 12:30 p.m., on the northbound side of the 14 Freeway in Newhall near Los Pinetos Road. 

As the gray RV swerves into the median, a person inside – later identified as Cordell Patrick – was thrown from the RV, and over the divider into the oncoming lanes. One driver had to swerve out of the way to avoid the man, who was sent rolling.

Alf Smithey was driving along the freeway when he saw the man down in the road, and he jumped in to help.

"I started running to the center divider and I saw him and I jumped down and ran to him," Smithey said. Smithey said the man came to rest only feet from the carpool lane, but, "He was mentally there. The first thing he said was, ‘How’s my wife?'"

Smithey also took video of the scene, which showed the man injured in the road, and the window of the RV. Patrick was thrown through the driver-side window – his head shattering the window, but somehow surviving the horrific accident despite ending up in the southbound lanes of a busy freeway.

Patrick, who has called games streaming on ESPN+, has since told FOX 11's Chelsea Edwards he is extremely lucky to be alive.

"It wasn't my time to go," Patrick said. "My survival is a miracle."

An online fundraiser has since been launched for Patrick: