NOT A ROUTINE CALL CHP OFFICER RESPONDS TO CRASH INVOLVING WIFE, DAUGHTER; BOTH OK.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

LEONA VALLEY - California Highway Patrol Officer Rusty Moore was on his way back to the Lancaster CHP office Tuesday morning when he heard a report of a car crash and decided to offer his assistance.

Seconds later, Lancaster CHP Capt. Brian Smith called Moore and told him it was his wife and 3-year-old daughter in the crash.

Moore raced to the scene and found his wife and daughter were surprisingly unscathed, given their 1993 Nissan Maxima was destroyed after overturning three or four times.

``I heard the call come out and you don't think it's your wife and daughter in something like that,'' Moore said. ``It could have been much worse, from the way the car looked.''

The crash occurred about 10:30 a.m. on Elizabeth Lake Road near Godde Hill Road as Allison Moore and her daughter were driving on the two-lane road.

A tire felt soft and the car drifted onto the dirt shoulder, Allison Moore said. When she tried to pull the car back onto the road, the car went out of control, flipped across the road and came to rest on its wheels near a cherry orchard.

Allison Moore had some back and neck pain, but otherwise she and her daughter were uninjured. The Nissan, however, was a total loss.

``You hear a call like that and you just don't think about it,'' Rusty Moore said. ``We get crash calls all the time.''

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Photo:

(color) Rescue workers and good Samaritan Lana Seymour of Leona Valley assist a child involved in a car crash Tuesday on Elizabeth Lake Road.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer