MENTAL HEALTH
Live Mic: Driver saves life of suicidal man on highway’s edge
Jan 11, 2020, 6:23 AM | Updated: Jan 4, 2023, 2:46 pm
CACHE COUNTY, Utah — Cache County resident Kelli Snider was driving along a five-lane highway south of Logan in November when she spotted something that didn’t seem right. A man was standing along the side of the road, but standing too close to rushing traffic.
Snider joined Lee Lonsberry on his show “Live Mic” to share her life-altering experience.
“The thought struck me that he wasn’t okay — something was wrong,” she said. “He was alone. There were no bus stops nearby.”
She drove on but soon pulled off the highway to refuel. She couldn’t stop thinking about this stranger on the edge of the road.
Snider decided to turn around.
“I can’t be the only one who’s got this feeling,” Snider said. “Someone would have stopped, right? if something’s wrong.”
When she returned, there he was.
“But I couldn’t pull up next to him,” Snider said, “He was too close to traffic.”
She said she called out to the young man but he was unresponsive. She approached and he turned to her.
“I could just see the despair in his eyes,” she said. “I reached down and touched his arm and said, ‘Are you feeling suicidal?'”
He reached into his pocket and handed Snider a long, hand-written suicide note.
“I looked at the note just long enough to gather his name,” she said, her voice breaking.
She said she doesn’t remember all she said to the young man.
“I know that I was inspired to say something to him to talk him away from the ledge,” Snider said. “I was able to persuade him to sit in my car while I called for help.”
Lee asked Snider whether a young woman, all alone, pulling over on the highway to help a stranger was the wisest thing to do?
“But as you’ve described here to us this afternoon, you felt something, you recognized something… familiar,” Lee said.
Snider said her intuition told her that he needed help.
“I knew without a doubt, that in that moment, I needed to be there,” she said.
Lee closed the day’s show by telling Snider: “Thank you for saving a life.”
She brushed away the label of hero, saying, “I’m just grateful I was in the right place at the right time.”
———————————————-
If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, please call the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
