There was a flash of light, then Arkansas State Police Trooper Roy Moomey woke up in his mangled patrol car, with emergency personnel working hard to keep him alive.
Moomey said he remembers earlier trying to herd motorists off Interstate 40 near Alma in the wee hours of Aug. 8 because a wrong-way driver was heading in their direction.
Moomey remembers seeing the car's oncoming headlights. He doesn't remember the head-on crash that took the life of Matthew C. Choate, 24, of Fort Smith, and almost took Moomey's.
"I remember trying to get the traffic to go to the right because I knew he was coming," Moomey said Friday. "I was getting in front of other motorists to make sure they weren't going to get hit. I had my lights and siren on to get him to stop, but he didn't stop."
Marc McCune, the Crawford County prosecutor, said Moomey risked his life to save others on the interstate.
Moomey said he did what any other police officer would have done to protect the public.
"I think any one of them that I've ever come across would do exactly the same thing," Moomey said. "We're there to protect a community that we love. We want to protect them. It's a calling."
Moomey, 41, of Van Buren said the crash left him with so many broken bones that he has lost count. Bones are broken in his leg, feet, wrist, ribs, pelvis and spine. Both of his lungs collapsed after the crash, but emergency personnel quickly got him breathing normally again.
On Sept. 2, Moomey went home after spending 10 days at HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital in Fort Smith. Before that, he was at Sparks Regional Medical Center in Fort Smith, where he underwent three surgeries.
While he doesn't remember the crash, Moomey remembers the immediate aftermath.
"I couldn't do anything afterward but sit in my car and watch my heroes work," he said. "The fire department practically cut my car in half to save my life. They were incredible. They were cutting into the car, working on me. It was like an orchestra. I felt content. I could breathe. I didn't feel a whole lot of pain. I just felt warm. My body took over, I guess."
Moomey, who has been a state trooper for six years, said it was the second time he has responded to a call about a vehicle going the wrong way on the interstate. The previous time, the driver stopped.
"Just taking that kind of a call, it'll raise the hair on your arms," Moomey said.
Bill Sadler, a spokesman for the state police, said the crash is still under investigation, so the report isn't available to the public. Moomey said he couldn't talk much about the details of the crash because of that.
Police received a call at 3:35 a.m. Aug. 8 about a vehicle traveling west in the eastbound lanes on I-40 in Crawford County, according to a news release from the state police.
"Trooper Moomey was dispatched to the area, where his patrol car was struck by the vehicle being driven in the wrong direction," according to the release.
According to the accident summary, Choate was driving a 2012 Ford, and Moomey was driving a 2014 Dodge.
Previously of Maumelle, Moomey is a graduate of Catholic High School in Little Rock and of the University of Mississippi, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business. Moomey's father was a Little Rock police detective.
Moomey said he worked in real estate appraisal for a few years but wasn't happy doing that. So he applied to the state police and was hired.
In 2009, he was assigned to work the Highway Patrol Division for Troop H in Crawford County.
In May this year, Moomey received an award from the state police for pulling a man out of a burning pickup on Jan. 22, 2015. The vehicle had run off Interstate 49.
Moomey said he's looking forward to going back to work. He's hoping to be completely recovered by December. Before the crash, he had applied to work in the criminal investigation division of the state police.
Moomey said many people -- even people he didn't know -- went to visit him in the hospital.
"There were a lot of times when it was hard -- hard to open your eyes up and be ready to roll," he said.
Moomey said he was feeling down one day when an elderly woman he didn't know stopped by to visit him.
"She didn't say much. She just sat there with me and held my hand," Moomey said. "I don't have any grandparents anymore, but that's what it felt like. She sat there and started praying over me. ... I don't have family in the River Valley area, but I do now. This community is really close to you when you're in need.
"The path the good Lord has put me on has to be for a reason," Moomey said. "I'm going to come out OK, and I'm just going to get better."
SundayMonday on 09/11/2016