Real Life MVPs

by Lauren Cavagnolo - Oklahoma Daily Staff Writer

NORMAN, Okla. - Fans across the state consider the Sooners to be football heroes, but to the Bruce L. Smith family of Oklahoma City, two athletes have proved themselves heroes off the field as well.

Defensive lineman Lynn McGruder and wide receiver Mark Clayton were on their way back from Texas to Norman when they witnessed the fatal accident involving three cars on Interstate 35 on June 1. The two football players jumped out of their car and began pulling the family of five from their crushed and burning van.

"So much was going on, the cars coming, the sirens coming, people screaming. All I was thinking was get those people out of the car, especially when I saw the fire," Clayton said.

A red Ford Escort ran off the road from the southbound side onto the northbound side of Interstate 35 around 6:30 in the evening. The Escort hit the Smith family's 2000 Chevrolet van head-on. A police car then hit the Escort.

The driver of the Escort, 19-year-old Alicia Layne of Purcell, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her sister Laura, 15, was taken to OU Medical Center, where she is still in a coma, and her condition has been updated to severe. She was initially in critical condition with head, neck, trunk and internal injuries.

Arriving on the scene, the two football players were faced with a frightening sight. Knowing what needed to be done, the 5-foot-11, 175-pound Clayton and 6-foot-3, 290-pound McGruder sprang into action.

"The motor on the van was sparking," McGruder said. "I ran past the van, and the lady driving looked right at me and said, 'Please help me.'"

McGruder tried to help the driver of the van. He pulled on the door and pried it open, falling back onto the freeway in the process. Once the door was open, he realized it would be impossible to pull the lady out because she was pressed tightly between the steering wheel and the seat.

McGruder ran around to the back of the van and kicked in one of the passenger-side windows. From that window, he began helping passengers out of the van.

While McGruder was busy rescuing passengers, Clayton worked on getting the driver out of the van from one of the back passenger doors.

"I was shaking when we were pulling people out of the van. There was screaming," Clayton said. "I was so nervous. It was one of the worst things you can ever see."

After all of the passengers were safely out of the van, McGruder worked to make sure the van didn't catch on fire.

First checking on Lance Fields, the police officer who had been hit in the accident, McGruder then obtained a fire extinguisher from a passer-by, which he used to put out the fire that had sparked in the motor of the van, he said.

"We really got to the scene first," McGruder said. "It wasn't anything you could drive by because in your heart you're going to think about it for the rest of your life. It was serious."

Clayton also remembers the accident vividly.

"I saw this red car go in a ditch. It disappeared and came out airborne," Clayton said. "It smacked a van, then smacked a cop car. I swerved and ended up in a ditch."

McGruder grabbed the wheel and pulled the car back onto the northbound shoulder, where they waited for the smoke to clear, Clayton said.

"I don't know how we missed it," McGruder said. "Mark swerved and I grabbed the wheel. After everything cleared off, we pulled onto the shoulder of the northbound lane. Mark said, 'You want to stop?' and I said, 'Yeah, we've got to. It's serious.'"

Neither Clayton nor McGruder seemed to think much of their heroics.

"We just did all that we could until the police and ambulance arrived and started to do their jobs," Clayton said.

McGruder agrees, "I prayed real quick before I got out of the car and just did it."

However, for the Smith family, their actions made a difference.

"They sped up the time to get the patients care," said Mike Clifton, fire chief in Purcell, who was on the scene of the accident. "It would have taken us an extra 15 minutes to get them out of the vehicle."

By helping them get out of the van, McGruder and Clayton helped the Smith family get medical attention that much faster.

"They also had them calmed down quite a bit, considering the situation," Clifton said.

The Smith family, Bruce, 50, Nancy, 43, Makenna, 19, Kyle, 17, and Jeff, 12, was headed back from a family vacation, a cruise that left from Galveston.

The father and boys had fallen asleep in the back seat while watching a movie, Nancy was reading a book in the front seat and Makenna, a broadcast journalism sophomore at OU, was driving.

"All I remember is (Makenna) yelled, 'They're going to hit us,' and that's when I saw the red car," Nancy said.

From that point on, the rest of the events were unclear to the Smiths.

"I woke up in the grass and there were people over me," Bruce Smith said. "It was all very surreal."

He was later taken by medi-flight to OU Medical Center, along with his son Kyle.

Nancy Smith remembers someone helping her out of the car but cannot recall who.

"All I remember is someone lifted me out and set me on the grass," she said. "You just don't focus on faces. The car was smoking and I was just thinking I had to get out."

She kicked out her window in an attempt to get out and with the help of McGruder got out of the van.

"I woke up and they pulled me out of the back seat window," Jeff said. "They laid me and my mom down on the asphalt. I went in a separate ambulance and didn't see any of (my family) for a while."

McGruder said he has been checking up on the family and their status by reading about them in the papers.

Makenna was taken to Norman Regional Hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries and released. Her mother and brother Jeff were also taken to the Norman hospital and were treated for minor head and hand injuries and released.

Kyle was treated at OU Medical Center for minor head and hand injuries. His father was treated for head, trunk, internal, arm and leg injuries, according to the accident report.

All the members in the family have since been released from the hospital and are recovering from their injuries.

And even though no one in the family remembers the two Sooners who stopped to help, they are still appreciative.

"You hear all the stereotypes about OU football players, but they weren't like that," Makenna said. "They were real people concerned about somebody else."

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