MUSC police officer's instincts kick in during off-duty drama

Carlos Moran was headed home after working all night as a lieutenant in the Public Safety Department at the Medical University of South Carolina. “We work 10-hour shifts, so I'm beat. This is all the way down Highway 61, close to Summerville. The one-lane road with all the trees,” he said. “And then we hit a full stop. I see that maybe a mile down, there's an accident.”

Another driver, Cameron Moeller, was stuck in the same traffic. “So I flipped around trying to go a different way to get to work,” Moeller said.

Moran watched as Moeller’s Honda passed him going the opposite way. He thought it was a good sign. “I was like, ‘Great, the accident is clearing,’” the officer said.

But his perspective changed as he kept watching Moeller’s car in his side mirror. “I see the back of his car going behind me. Then I see another car coming into the intersection, and the Honda can’t stop. They crash, and the Honda takes flight. It flips and crashes into a tree.”

 

After a moment of shock, Moran’s training kicked in. “I did a three-point turn and raced to his car. I always carry a knife on me for work. It has these metal tips at the end to break glass. I was like, ‘Sir, are you OK?’ But I didn't hear anything. So I start smashing the glass in the back window.”

The officer said Moeller’s crumpled car was smoking. “So I'm thinking, this car's going to blow up right now with the gas in the car and everything,” Moran said. “I pulled him out. He couldn't really talk. And he made the sound like he was punched in the gut. So I took him across the street.”

Moeller was conscious but stunned. “He ended up just grabbing me and getting me out of the car and I walked the other side of 61 and sat back down,” Moeller said. “I looked at the people who were watching us. They probably thought they saw a ghost or something, because there's no rhyme or reason I should have been walking right after that.”

Walking – and, after recovering a bit more, talking to Moran. “He's like, ‘I have to call my girlfriend,’” the officer said. “And I was like, ‘You can't go in your car. It’s dangerous. Take my phone.’ So then I gave him my phone and I was like, ‘Make as many phone calls as you want. Do whatever you need.’”

Moeller’s girlfriend, Alexis Ruhl, is a nurse at MUSC Health. She missed his call. But Ruhl got one from her boyfriend’s father. “His dad was like, ‘Cam's been involved in an accident.’ And I just lost it, because the road that we live off of is super dangerous. I assumed the worst and I started hyperventilating,” she said.

“And then his dad was like, ‘Alexis, he's OK. I've talked to him.’”

Meanwhile, an ambulance arrived at the scene on 61. Moran talked to the emergency medical services crew about what had happened and learned where the ambulance was headed. “And then I told Cameron, ‘Listen. You're going to MUSC. I work at MUSC. It's a great hospital, don't worry. Everything's going to be great.’”

And amazingly, it was. Doctors checked out Moeller and he was able to go home. “I just had a couple minor bruises,” he said.

 

He also had a heart full of gratitude for the officer who rescued him. “I’m thankful that he happened to be around because I don't know what could have happened. There were some concerns of my car blowing up because of the amount of oxygen that could have been in my tank because I didn't have an adequate amount of gas.”

That close call inspired Moeller’s father, Jeffrey, to write a letter to MUSC praising Moran’s actions. “This man basically saved my son's life, and as a dad, when I can't be there, there's someone willing to pull over, get out and help him when I can't be there to help,” Jeffrey Moeller said.

That man, Moran, credited the training he got at MUSC – and his faith. “I don't know how this world works or how life works, but I feel like God put me there at that specific moment to do that. It was pretty intense to see a car T-bone another car, making it do like three flips into a tree. That's a rare sighting.”

Moran’s chief, Patrick Kelly, wasn’t surprised Moran was involved in such heroics. “He embraces our motto of ‘Let’s help someone today.’ I’ve walked the campus with him quite a few times and watched him interact with the campus community. It’s almost a given that Carlos would jump into action to help others. It’s in his nature. I am proud to have him as a part of our team here at Public Safety.”