Butler County neighbors rally to save wreck victim

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- The Rev. Vernon Self, 79, was alive to enjoy Christmas. Were it not for his neighbors, he might not have been.

At about 10 a.m. Tuesday, Self found himself hanging upside down with his head in the water after his 1996 Buick skidded on ice and overturned into a waterfilled drainage ditch. He was found by his neighbors in the Elk community. With the roads treacherous and help a long way off, they immediately launched a rescue effort to save him.

Self has a few stitches in his hands and said he's "a little stiff" but thankful for his neighbors.

Bob King and Francis Shepard were traveling on the road when they saw someone trapped underwater in an overturned vehicle. Also traveling the highway were King's nephew Davis Shular, Andy Stephens and Dennis Henson.

As Shular was jumping into the freezing water to hold Self's head up to keep him from drowning, Shepard was scouting out a tractor to use to right the car.

"We got him out about the time the ambulance arrived. We were probably there about an hour," Shular said.

While Rural Metro Emergency Medical Services personnel were transporting Self to the hospital, another neighbor, Noble Kennedy, picked up Self's wife, Donna, and took her to Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center.

When Butler County deputy Randle Huddleston arrived at the scene, emergency medical personnel were preparing to transport Self to the hospital.

Huddleston said of the neighbors, "Basically, they saved him. If it had not been for those neighbors, God only knows."

Huddleston said, "Conditions were deceptive. It looked like water on the road, but it was ice and sending people off the road." Checking his log book, the deputy said he was dispatched at 10:30 a.m. The Butler County Sheriff's Department worked several accidents besides the one on Route CC. Huddleston said city police officers and patrol were busy, also.

While the men in the rescue crew really didn't want to be called "heroes," others in the community were quick to say these scenes happen often in their community.