Sergeant responds to fatal accident Published March 1, 2007 By Nicole Campbell Staff Writer POPE AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. -- It was evening when he drove past a woman walking across the street, and as he checked his rearview mirror seconds later, he knew something terrible had happened. Staff Sgt. Lyle Valentine watched a car swerve behind him and its headlights disappear. He knew the woman he had just seen had been hit. Natasha Kinard and her 5-year-old daughter, Evelyn Copeland, were hit by a car while crossing Reilly Road Feb. 5. He hadn't seen Evelyn with her mother initially. "I don't even remember stopping the car, but I remember running to the scene. There was a little girl 10 or 15 feet from the car," recalled Sergeant Valentine, a crew chief with the 743rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. "The adrenaline kicked in and some of the details are fuzzy," he said. Sergeant Valentine could hear Ms. Kinard; he knew she was injured, but alive and breathing. So he focused on helping a fellow servicemember perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Evelyn. Sergeant Valentine kept her airway clear as the soldier administered chest compressions. "The Army guy said she had a pulse, but it was weakening. Then an Army medic showed up, and I just tried to help however I could," Sergeant Valentine said. The fire department and an ambulance arrived not long after the accident occurred, and Evelyn and her mother were whisked away to the hospital. Evelyn died a short time later. Sergeant Valentine was able to stay calm and rely on his training as a CPR instructor while trying to help save Evelyn, but the accident has deeply affected him, he said. "I get nervous when I'm driving sometimes, and I am paranoid about something happening to my kids," he said. He has two daughters, ages 6 and 2, and a 3-month-old son. He has been trying to overcome the tragedy, and he feels talking about what happened that night will help. He has focused on his job and getting through the 12-hour shifts. In addition to his crew chief duties, Sergeant Valentine also serves as an adult CPR instructor on base. He said performing CPR on children is different, and the night he helped Evelyn he couldn't remember the compression to breath ratio for children. He thinks Airmen should be required to learn child CPR during their training as well, so they are prepared for any situation, on base or off. Although Evelyn did not survive, everyone who tried to save her acted heroically. Her passing has brought sorrow to many people's lives, but despite the sadness, Sergeant Valentine said he will be prepared and willing if faced with another emergency situation. "I was just talking to my wife about it -- if someone needed help, I would not hesitate. I would definitely do what I could to help," he said.