Crash Victim Recalls 2 1/2-Day Ordeal of Waiting for Help

Lying on the ceiling of his overturned van, his left arm badly mangled and pinned among branches that had punched through his windshield, Lee Risler’s first thought was that he had survived the crash that sent his van down the embankment of the San Gabriel River Freeway near Downey.

“I laid there and thought, ‘I made it,’ and I kept waiting for someone to come and ask if everyone is OK,” the 54-year-old sandal maker from Lucerne Valley said from his hospital bed Wednesday. “But no one came.”

In fact, rescuers didn’t find Risler for 2 1/2 days, an excruciating period in which the avid surfer and father of four tried to cut away at the branches and dig the dirt out from under the van before he made a desperate decision: to cut his hand off to rescue himself.

“I knew at one point I might have to cut my hand off to get out,” he said in a lengthy interview more than a week after the rescue. “I waited until I knew I had very little time left.”

With his weeping wife at his side, Risler recounted Wednesday the harrowing 56 hours he spent trapped upside-down on the side of the busy freeway, ignored by thousands of passing motorists until he became so desperate he decided to make the ultimate attempt to free himself.

Risler was in stable condition at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, where doctors last week amputated his badly crushed arm just above the elbow. He is scheduled to have further surgery later this week. Risler was in good spirits Wednesday and joked about surfing again and learning to use a prosthetic arm.

Family members defended Risler’s decision to cut his left hand, saying his entire arm was so crushed and swollen from lack of blood flow that it probably was going to be amputated anyway.

“It was basically a dead limb early on,” said Risler’s wife, Bryn, a registered nurse.

The ordeal began early Saturday, March 18, when Risler left his home in Lucerne Valley for a St. Patrick’s Day festival in Hermosa Beach, where he planned to sell his handmade sandals at a booth and spend the day on the beach with his family.

He was traveling south on the San Gabriel River Freeway, near the transition to the Century Freeway, when a car suddenly sideswiped his white Ford van, sending it out of control and down a 50-foot ravine shrouded in trees and brush.

His left arm was trapped beneath him, but Risler said he could reach his car horn, which he honked for nearly 20 minutes until his car battery died.

“I couldn’t understand why no one was coming to my aid,” he said. “I mean I’m off the side of a major freeway.”

At first, Risler could not see his left arm because it was pinned beneath a large wooden sign he uses to advertise his sandals. He found a large hunting knife he kept in the van and used it to cut the sign away. The knife broke and fell out of his hands just as the sign broke away. But Risler then realized his arm was twisted and pinned among several branches that were below the sign.

“When I saw that, I knew my hand was badly mangled,” he said.

At first his arm was numb and he didn’t realize the extent of his injuries. He soon discovered that he had a 15-inch gash on the top of his head and several chipped teeth.

“My worst moment was thinking of my wife showing up at the show [in Hermosa Beach] and not finding me,” he said.

He tugged at his arm so hard that he dislocated his left shoulder.

Risler said much of his time was spent methodically thinking through ways to free himself. He eventually found a shaving kit that included a pocketknife with a 2 1/2-inch blade, which he used to try to whittle away at the branches. But “it was like trying to cut steel.”

He worked on the branches with the pocketknife for about five hours, until the blade became dull.

Twice during the 2 1/2-day ordeal, Risler said, he became hopeful when he heard sirens. But his hope died as the sirens faded into the distance.

By Saturday afternoon, the pain in his arm was excruciating and he began to worry about dehydration. He also was getting sore from lying on a metal support beam on the van ceiling. That is when he gave up cutting the branches and started to dig out the dirt under the van to relieve the pressure on his arm.

He said he tried to eat some toothpaste from his shaving kit to relieve his hunger and thirst.

“It never crossed my mind to give up,” he said.

When his arm had swollen and turned black, Risler said, he decided to cut his fingers off and pull his arm free, using a wetsuit as a tourniquet. He cut off his thumb and three other fingers, but felt no pain, he said. He then tried to pull loose but realized his arm was still pinned at the elbow.

He continued to dig at the dirt and shout for help every few hours.

Meanwhile, his wife Bryn said, she was frantically checking in every hour with police and California Highway Patrol officers throughout the region for news on her missing husband.

Risler was finally discovered by Caltrans worker Ben Sepulveda, who was sweeping glass from the freeway shoulder when he noticed Risler’s van among the trees.

Risler thought he was hallucinating when he heard Sepulveda yell, “Is anyone down there?”

It took rescuers three hours to free him from the van. At the hospital, Risler was so heavily bandaged that his wife didn’t recognize him at first.

When he was reunited with his wife and children, he said he just wanted them to hold him.

“I said ‘Touch me.’ ”

Doctors say Risler will spend another 10 days in the hospital before he begins rehabilitation and therapy in using a prosthetic arm.

A fund has been created to help the family with their finances. Donations can be sent to First Mountain Bank, P.O. Box 2100, Lucerne Valley, CA 92356.