In Urbandale, Eli's Helmet Saved His Life

Leslie Dobbs saw the truck rolling backwards out of the driveway across the street. 

She saw the boys, riding their bikes in the cul-de-sac, directly behind the truck.

She couldn't move fast enough.

Dobbs jumped in the cab of the truck, put it back in gear and got out of the truck, without fully realizing that her 4-year-old son, Eli, had been run over.
Eli, and two 7-year-old neighbor boys, whose names haven't yet been released by police, were playing in their quiet 160th Circle cul-de-sac.

"We were both outside watching our kids and we couldn't get to them," Leslie said of her husband, Chad. Miraculously, the Saturday afternoon accident only slightly injured their son and one of the 7-year-old boys.

A 2-year-old sibling of the other injured boy had climbed into an open door of the truck and somehow moved it out of gear.

Both boys emerged with scrapes on their heads. The third boy was able to scamper out of the path of the truck.

Eli's father sprinted to the truck as his wife jumped in the cab. The truck had rolled completely over the two boys and they were now in front of it.

The older boy jumped up crying and ran into his house and "Eli stood right up. I didn't expect him to get up, but he jumped right up," he said. 

It wasn't until a few moment later that Chad noticed that the chin strap of Eli's bicycle helmet was still around his neck with just one chunk of molded foam attached to it.

Eli is fine. He has a small bruise where he was cut on the forehead, and he had to spend Saturday night in the hospital for observation and tests.

"It's hard to imagine a head could have been inside this," Chad said Tuesday, holding the shattered remnants of the helmet in a plastic bag. 

The couple said that the incident taught them two things.

"In a split second your life can change," Chad said. "You can't hug your kids enough. You can't kiss them enough."

And second, helmets save lives. Leslie, a physical therapist, has worked with patients with head injuries, so the couple taught Eli and his sister, Caroline, 3, to wear their helmets anytime they're on their bikes or scooters or skates. 

"We're so proud of Eli for always wearing his helmet," she said.