A longtime Huntington Beach pediatrician is recovering in Salt Lake City after being hit by a truck while checking on people who were involved in a separate car crash on a freeway.
Dr. Ronald Cornelsen, 88, was on a road trip with his daughter and her husband earlier this month when they witnessed a crash on I-80 outside of Salt Lake City. The group stopped to check on the passengers involved in the wreck they witnessed when a semitruck hit a truck on the road that then slammed into Cornelsen and his daughter, Heather Williams, according to news reports of the crash.
Williams, 50, was thrown over a fence that runs parallel to the two-lane freeway, and Cornelsen hit the ground and was partially in one of the lanes, unable to move, said Megan Kiklas, another daughter of Cornelsen.
Cornelsen recounted to Kiklas at the hospital that it “felt like my hair was moving with every car that went by,” she said. “My Dad laid there and just prayed.”
Cornelsen and Williams had to be airlifted to the hospital. There, doctors said Cornelsen had several broken ribs, fractures in his pelvis and sacrum, a concussion, road rash injuries to his head, and cuts throughout his body. Williams “took the brunt of the accident” to her face, lost an eye and needs more facial reconstruction surgeries.
Utah Highway Patrol is still investigating the incident.
Kiklas said this wasn’t the first time her father has stopped to help people after an accident. A few summers ago, he tended to teenagers involved in a wreck at Pacific Coast Highway and Warner Avenue.
Cornelsen has worked as a pediatrician in Orange County since the 1960s, most known for his practice on Beach Boulevard in Huntington Beach. He retired in 2020. His daughter, Williams, was raised in Orange County, but now lives in Iowa. Both are in stable condition and recovering at the Craig H. Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital at the University of Utah Hospital.
Kiklas said her father’s therapists are targeting…
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