LAKE CITY, Wash. — The UW graduate student lived to tell the story of a massive tree that landed on his car as he was driving in Lake City.
The bomb cyclone that blew through western Washington last week has given Tyson Ramirez more than usual to celebrate this Thanksgiving.
Ramirez was behind the wheel last Tuesday night when a tree came down onto his vehicle but missed him.
This is a story he’ll likely tell his grandchildren one day. KIRO 7 saw him being pulled from his car last week, alive. The big hole where the tree once stood shows how large it was. And the very good news is that Ramirez lived to tell his own story.
“You can see me right here,” Ramirez said. “This is where the guy is saying, ‘Hey buddy, I think we can pull you out, just try to slide.’ And then you’ll see me. I’m that maroon right there.”
We showed Ramirez the video we shot last Tuesday night. Seattle firefighters pulled him from the car he drove from his native Texas but stopped in its tracks by a tree that seemed to fall from the sky.
“I knew something was going to crash through my windshield,” he said. “And so, instead of like, I guess that was my way of breaking my impact. I just wanted to get away from the collision, so, I just leaned back in my driver’s seat. I leaned back and, man. Thank god, that was enough.”
Just enough, he says, to avoid a direct hit.
“I had to look around and check if I’m still alive,” he said.
Then he had a new worry.
“I could see the body of the tree above me,” he said. “And this thing is just massive. I don’t know how long this car is going to hold up for. I thought I was going to have keep playing limbo, slumping lower and lower until, I don’t know when.”
Neighbors were worried, too. They called 911. They even took this picture of him slumped down in the car, waiting for help. This is how it looked in the light of day.
The 26-year-old still marvels over his good fortune.
“And lo, and behold, I had not been injured at all,” he said. “It did not touch me. It was a miracle. It was a miracle.”
So, of course, I asked if he would drive down 35th Avenue again. He said yes, but he would speed past where this tree was.
Sadly, now he is a graduate student in need of a car so his family convinced him to create a GoFundMe. To donate, click here.
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