Decorah man helped to save Waukon family in last week's head-on car crash

Walker Hovey of Decorah was heading back to Decorah on Highway 76 at Rossville on Sunday afternoon, August 26th, when he rounded a corner and watched two pickups crash head on into one another right in front of him.

The accident killed one of the drivers and injured all of the occupants of the other truck.  But it could have been even worse--if not for Walker's actions.

The crash started the first truck on fire.  That put the occupants of the second truck, the Egan family of Waukon, at risk.  But the crash had crumpled the doors of the second truck and when Walker Hovey got out of his truck and tried to open the doors of the other truck, they wouldn't budge.

The driver of the second truck, 29-year-old Patrick Egan of Waukon, complained about the heat from the fire.  Walker Hovey grabbed some chains from the back of Egan's truck and hooked the chains onto a trailer behind the Egan's truck and then onto his own truck.  He pulled--and the trailer separated from the second truck and crashed into Hovey's truck.

Nevertheless, Walker then hitched the chains to the back of Egan's truck--and pulled it 50 feet, away from the burning first truck.

Walker says he couldn't just stand by while others were in danger.  "If this had been you, you would have wanted people to help."  So Walker knows he did the right thing--even if coming to the rescue resulted in dents in his one month old truck.  His heroic actions kept a dangerous situation following the head-on traffic crash from becoming even more dangerous.

Hovey has talked by phone to the Egans and has traded messages on Facebook.  Three of the Egans were released from Veterans Memorial Hospital, while Patrick Egan Senior was admitted to the hospital.

Patrick Egan Junior's wife, Danielle Egan, says in an e-mail to decorahnews.com, "We are grateful for all the help we received."  She also thanks Darryl Brink and Justin Hager for also providing help at the scene of the accident.