Father stops to help stalled car in Sacramento, DUI driver barrels into him, severs legs

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTVU) - A good Samaritan was stuck by a DUI driver when he stopped to help a woman who ran out of gas on highway 50 in Sacramento, Melinda Meza of KCRA reports. He lost both of his legs.

Mark Poss, 29, saw a couple stranded near the 15th Street exit in downtown Sacramento in the early hours of Sunday morning before pulling off to help. The car was out of gas. Arlette Lovato, the driver, said her friend and Poss tried pushing the car to the shoulder, and then down the off-ramp, in the direction of a gas station. 

But while pushing, another car barreled into them. 

“I was blacked out for a little, but woke up and realized I had been hit,” Lovato said. “Then I remembered the guys were in back there. I panicked.”

CHP reported that one of Poss’ legs was severed in the crash and the other needed to be amputated. And it was the tourniquet applied by the officer on the scene, accompanied by the fast-acting work by the UC Davis Medical Center's staff, that saved his life, Poss' family said on the GoFundMe campaign set up to support the mounting medical bills. 

“I’m sorry for what happened to him – he didn’t deserve that.” Lovato said. “I want his family to know we are thinking about him.”

Poss, who is married with a young son, was treated at UC Davis Medical Center. The road to recovery will be long, his friends said. 

The other man struck by the vehicle has a broken leg that required surgery. Lovato said she wants both men to know that their kindness and sacrifice will never be forgotten.

The DUI driver was taken to jail.