“We train for this from day one. We train for a mass casualty incident. But you never expect to actually live one out, especially one of this scale,” Riley said.
James Ward was at the wheel. He’s a five-year veteran at MedStar with 12 years of emergency medical service experience.
“I saw the initial sparks when the first car hit the barrier, and that jackknifed the 18-wheeler and it just set off a chain reaction from there,” Ward said.
The barrier was the concrete wall between the main lanes of the freeway and the southbound toll express lanes where the collisions occurred. Some of the wrecked vehicles tipped over the barrier.