Delcambre man pulls driver from flooding car on Hwy. 167

Linda Verrette was lucky Phillip Norris of Delcambre was traveling north on U.S. Hwy. 167 at the same time she was. Had he waited a few minutes to travel, Verrette may not be alive today.
Verrette, 67, was heading home to Lafayette on Hwy. 167 at around 4 p.m. during a rain storm. For unknown reasons, Verrette’s vehicle began to hydroplane because of the water on the road. Her vehicle slid into a ditch between Maurice and Abbeville, not far from Duhon Road.
Due to the heavy rain, there was moving water in the ditch and Verrette’s vehicle was half underwater, with her still in the driver’s seat. Her body was jammed under the steering wheel, so she was not walking out of the accident without help.
Her cell phone stayed dry, and she frantically called one of her daughters telling her, “My car is in a ditch, and I can not get out. I don’t exactly know where I am.”
Her family knew she was leaving Abbeville, heading home, so they rushed to Hwy. 167 in hopes of finding the white SUV.
At the same time this was happening, Norris was also traveling north on Hwy. 167, and he looked to his right and saw something white in a ditch.
It looked like a car, so he put the brakes on and skidded 50 yards past the SUV. He parked and began running towards the SUV, partially submerged in water.
Norris said, “I was so relieved to come around the car, look through the windshield and see her look up at me. I saw her eyes when she saw me.”
Norris could not open the passenger door, so he needed to break the glass. Norris, a contractor, ran back up the hill to his truck to get a sledgehammer. He returned, broke the back passenger glass, and opened the passenger door. He crawled into the SUV and realized that getting her out was going to take a lot of work with the SUV on its side. He had to break her seatbelt to get her out of the seat.
“Thank God she was a trooper,” said Norris. “She remained calm the entire time. She said a joke about me breaking her back glass.”
While still in the SUV, the two exchanged first names only.
He eventually got her unbuckled and helped her stand up in the SUV, where he pulled her out of the vehicle. He carried her up the steep ditch on his back. Another man stopped and offered help carrying Verrette up the hill.
Before he carried her, Verrette said she lost a shoe and needed that shoe for work, she told him. Norris reached into the muddy ditch, pulled her shoe out of the water.
By the time Verrette and Norris reached the shoulder of Hwy. 167, the Sheriff’s deputy and family began to arrive. Norris gave Verrette a dry towel to dry her, and he made sure she was physically OK. Then he left the scene. He returned home to Delcambre to wash and dry off and then to Lafayette on Hwy. 167. When he drove by the accident, the SUV was entirely underwater.
That night, he wanted to know if Verrette was OK. He posted on his Facebook page about the car accident, and the driver’s name was Linda. He asked if anyone knew of a Linda involved in a car accident on Hwy. 167.
When he did that, Linda Trahan, Verrette’s daughter, also posted a message on her Facebook page asking if anyone knew who the two men were who rescued her mother in a car accident.
Someone who is friends with Norris and Trahan tagged Norris about Linda’s question.
Norris responded to Trahan’s Facebook post.
“Good morning Tracy Trahan, I was the one that got her out of the car........I am so relieved to know that she is OK. Please tell her, I said, to never do that again.”
Thursday morning, Trahan and Norris spoke on the phone, and Norris asked Trahan again if Verrette was still OK.
Trahan is grateful someone stopped for the accident.
“There are still good people in the world,” said Trahan. “I am so glad he stopped to help.”
When the dust clears, Norris said he wants to meet with Verrette in normal circumstances.
“I did what I hope someone would do if that were my wife or son in the car,” said Norris.