DAUPHIN COUNTY -- “I have amnesia related to the crash so I actually have no memory of what took place."
On March 27, 2015, State Police Sergeant Robert Bemis’s life changed forever.
He was on his way home to Dauphin County from a training session in Wilkes-Barre.
Bemis saw a vehicle fire on the side of Interstate 81 South near Frackville, so he stopped to help.
"We swear through our call of honor that we will be in service of anyone who would be in danger or distress and that's what brought me to the side of the road that day,” he said.
While Bemis was on the side of the interstate trying to help, a driver lost control slamming into Bemis's vehicle which in turn hit him.
Critically injured, he was flown to a hospital with a broken spine and other bones.
Sergeant Bemis has had multiple surgeries and months and months of rehab and physical therapy.
His feet are paralyzed.
He uses leg braces and crutches to get around and he has vision loss in one eye.
"You have to get up, and continue to persevere every day just to try to make the next day better."
Bemis returned to his job as a supervisor and instructor at the Pennsylvania State Police Academy in Hershey.
This year, Bemis, who is 50, retired with 25 years of service to the state police.
He has just finished a book titled "Forged In Scars & Stripes: A Trooper's Victory Over Critical Injury.'
You can learn more here.
"Certainly it's a story no one wants to tell, but it's the one that I have and it's important to share the experiences of my final 22 months as a state trooper in hopes that someone can learn to persevere through their own individual hardships."
Bemis gives lectures about his experience now and he hopes what he's gone through will help others.
And if he had it to do all over again, he says he would still have stopped that March day to help someone in need.
"If I had it to do over again, of course, I would stop. It's an easy thing to say but it really goes back to who we are in law enforcement and what we represent."