Joshua Jessie (left) and Dillon Quertermous (right)
MARION (WSIL)---ÂÂJoshua Jessie and Dillon Quertermous were traveling down I-57 on Thursday morning, on their way to a construction job, but no one expected what happened next.
"There was a bunch of fog and smoke and then the cars, it all came at the same time. It was, there was no avoiding it," said Jessie.
Just outside Charleston, 47 vehicles piled up one after the other, but Jessie and Quertermous couldn't sit back and watch.
"We can't just sit back and watch at that point, we gotta help people out," said Jessie.
So they took their skid steer and got to work.
"We were able to clear a lot of movable vehicles and people who were already safe out of the way, to be allow the service people like firetrucks and EMTS to pass through more easily," said Quertermous.Â
"Whatever we were asked. Fire marshals yell one thing, we did what we could. Police say something, we go in there too," Jessie added.
And while they were surrounded by the devastating affects of the crash, both men hope that tragedy can help bring out the good in others.
"I think in a situation like that, it just puts in the good in most people, where if you were in that situation you would want the help. You would want someone to have somebody making you feel safer and assisting you, instead of sitting there alone," said Quertermous.
Jessie and Quertermous were able to leave the interstate around 1:30 in the afternoon, but the experience will stay with them.
"Anything can happen at any second. It really opens your mind up to more possibilities of what could happen," Quertermous added.
That crash left many people injured and at least 5 people killed.
