Rural crash victims say the same man was waiting for them after separate wrecks: ‘It seems strange’

BENNINGTON, Neb. (WOWT/Gray News) – A frightening mystery is playing out along a busy highway in rural Nebraska.

Multiple drivers involved in separate crashes on Highway 36 in Bennington say the same man was the first person to arrive at the crash site and offer help.

Even stranger, all the crashes involved the vehicles hitting an object that was in the roadway – and now, drivers are wondering if those objects were placed there on purpose.

One of those drivers is Garrison Beach. Cresting a hill while traveling on Highway 36 in the dark, Beach swerved to avoid hitting an object in the roadway on Sunday night.

“I didn’t want to [crash] head-on into a big piece of metal in the middle of the road going 55-60 miles per hour, so I just tried to swerve out of the way,” Beach said.

But he overcorrected, and his Toyota Camry barreled through a wire guardrail and down a ravine, with his wife Skylar Beach riding it out in the passenger’s seat.

“It was pretty scary,” Skylar Beach said. “I remember screaming, and I wasn’t sure when we’d start rolling, but we were fortunate to walk away from the accident.”

The crash wouldn’t be the couple’s only shock of the evening, though.

Startled as they fast approached the object in the road, they looked over and noticed a vehicle parked on the with the headlight on, as if someone was keeping watch on the intersection.

“As soon as we got out of the car, I remember walking up the embankment and this guy showed up,” Garrison Beach said. “He was already there, like, waiting for us up on the side of the road and [said], ‘Are you guys OK? I’ve called the paramedics already.’”

Garrison Beach said they declined the stranger’s offer to get in his car.

“It was just very odd,” Skylar Beach said. “As soon as we said, ‘No, we’re going to wait for the police,' he kind of just walked back to his car.”

The man left before they got his name, but he doesn’t seem to be a stranger to similar incidents on Highway 36.

Kyle Sorenson can attest.

“I hit a kid’s bike that had been left right in the center of the road,” Sorenson said. “As I looked in my rearview mirror, I saw someone sitting there [just north] on Pawnee Road. They pulled up behind me and it was this individual saying he was checking to make sure we were OK.”

Seeing little damage to his vehicle, Kyle left, but later, near the same place along the highway, his wife spotted the same man behind another car leaking oil on the roadway.

“In two weeks, this has been three incidents where he was immediately the first person on the scene,” Sorenson said. “It seems strange.”

And even stranger, about two weeks later, Sorenson would see the same man from his incident at the crash scene of his friends, Garrison and Skylar Beach.

“I really didn’t want to confront the person, but I informed the police,” Sorenson said. “I don’t want to accuse and say this person is absolutely doing this, but I want to make aware this is strange.”

Feeling lucky to have survived the crash, the Beaches now wonder if the object sitting in their lane was simply bad luck — or no accident after all.

“We definitely want some answers on why he’s doing what he’s doing,” Skylar Beach said. “We just don’t want this to keep happening to other people, or something even worse to happen.”

The Douglas County Sheriff is investigating multiple incidents of objects lying in driving lanes on Highway 36 near Bennington. It is a main route to a landfill, so deputies want to determine if the debris fell off a truck or had been placed in the roadway on purpose.

Two other residents have also reported being involved in similar situations with police saying their investigation is continuing.

“We have a potential suspect in mind and we are continuing with an investigation right now. We have a subject of interest that we are honing in on,” Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson said.