‘These guys are heroes’: Trio pull man from burning SUV
Vehicle erupted in flames seconds after Toronto man, two others saved motorist
A Toronto man and two others are being credited with saving the life of a driver who they pulled from his burning vehicle Saturday on the Queen Elizabeth Way just seconds before it was engulfed in flames.
The driver was in the eastbound lanes near Gilmore Rd. in Fort Erie at about 9 a.m. when his SUV swerved into the ditch that separates the lanes and flew into the air.
George Bailey, who lives at Keele St. and Sheppard Ave. and was on his way to Buffalo to pick up his young son, was in the westbound lanes and watched as the vehicle rotated in the air towards him and stopped on the pavement five feet in front of him.
“He hit the road and the SUV was rolling right at me,” Bailey said.
“I was thinking, ‘Where am I going to go?’ ”
Bailey, a caretaker with the Simcoe District School Board, stopped his Honda Civic and got out to help the driver.
“He was pretty much out of it at first,” said Bailey, 53. When the man came to, Bailey urged him to stay in the vehicle until emergency crews arrived.
Two truckers who were travelling behind the SUV pulled over and joined Bailey.
Jeremy Hager was on his second week of the job with Earl Paddock Transportation and was coming back from the U.S., followed by Darrin Martin, a 49-year-old resident of St. Catharines, who also drives for the company.
Martin said it was just luck that they were there — they should have crossed the border on Friday night but there was a delay loading their cargo in Philadelphia and they didn’t reach it until Saturday morning.
When he got to the SUV, Martin said he smelled smoke and saw flames under the hood. He told Hager to run to their trucks to get their fire extinguishers.
Meanwhile, Martin and Bailey pried open the passenger door, which finally popped open on the “10th try.” Martin began dragging the man out while Hager worked the fire extinguisher. All three eventually helped get the driver out.
Seconds later, the entire front of the SUV was engulfed in flames, Bailey said. Martin continued to work on the fire until firefighters arrived.
“For us truck drivers, we all carry fire extinguishers for ourselves,” Hager said. “And fortunately today, we had them to keep someone else alive and to go home to his family.”
Afterwards, the men said police and firemen congratulated them and some called them heroes.
Reached by phone, Ontario Provincial Police wouldn’t comment on the incident. However, a freelance photographer who was at the scene said officers there alerted him to the heroic efforts of the men.
“As I was leaving, the cops said to me, there’s a hell of a story here. These guys are heroes,” said Harry Rosettani, a former OPP officer who lives five minutes from the crash scene and arrived to take photos.
Hager said officers shook their hands and told them they’d “saved the guy’s life.”
None of the rescuers stopped to think about their own safety and attributed the outcome to good timing.
“I just feel that I was in the right place at the right time, in a roundabout way,” Bailey said, “because if nobody was around, who knows what would have happened?” And they worried about the driver. “It’s kind of overwhelming,” Bailey said. “My first thought is how he’s doing because I have no idea what the extent of his injuries are.”
The OPP later tweeted that the SUV lost control, rolled and caught fire. They said the driver, who received minor injuries, was charged with careless driving. His name was not released.