‘God Put Me There’: How a Birthday Cake Errand Ended in a Life-Saving Rescue

Paul Jackson was on his way to pick up his wife’s birthday cake when he spotted an SUV veering across Interstate 5. Moments later, he made a decision he believes God placed him there to make.

Most people never expect an ordinary errand to become the defining moment of their day. But that’s exactly what happened to Washington resident Paul Jackson, whose drive to pick up his wife’s birthday cake became a race to stop a runaway SUV on Interstate 5 near Fife.

At first, he thought he was witnessing another reckless driver cutting across traffic.

“I saw the car bouncing on the wall,” Paul recalled.

But after taking a closer look, he realized something was seriously wrong. The woman behind the wheel was suffering a medical emergency, and her young son was strapped into a child seat in the back.

“He was scared… poor kid.”

In that moment, Paul knew the situation could turn deadly unless someone intervened.

“I Just Did It.”

“Somebody had to do something,” he shrugged. “I positioned my back tire to stop the speeding car. Got her front and just kind of pushed her on over, you know? I didn’t want anything to go south and just slowly guided her to a stop.”

Instead of letting the SUV continue careening down the interstate or forcing it to crash, Paul carefully used his own vehicle to steer it safely to the shoulder. Once it stopped, he put the SUV in park, helped get the young boy to safety, and stayed with the mother until officers and EMTs arrived.

Asked later what was going through his mind, Paul didn’t describe some elaborate rescue plan. Quite the opposite, in fact.

“It was something I didn’t even really think about. I just did it,” he said.

Paul did, however, have a plan for explaining his tardiness—and his dented Kia—to his wife. He snapped plenty of photos of the scene as evidence.

“Had to have proof for my wife,” he laughed. “Proof that I wasn’t pranking.”

“God Put Me There.”

Many have called Paul the “Hero of I-5.” He doesn’t see himself that way.

“God put me there to do that,” he explained, noting that driving past was never an option.

“You get so many opportunities to do things for other people. But we’re so busy, you know. We’ve got to go to work, got to do this, and you pass by and you’re like, ‘Oh man, I should have helped that person.'”

For Paul, this wasn’t going to be one of those moments.

“This was not going to be that case, you know what I mean? It was going to happen. I needed to stop this vehicle no matter what.”

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