Gang prospect's brave act
An elderly woman in Auckland was hauled from her burning car yesterday by a gang associate, who says he didn’t think twice about rushing to her aide.
Her rescuer, known as DG, is a prospective Headhunter and has the gang’s ‘88’ symbol tattooed on his calves. He described seeing a car ‘‘swerving wildly across three lanes of the [Auckland] Harbour Bridge’’ yesterday afternoon before it crashed metres from the police station at the Stafford Rd off-ramp, where it burst into flames.
‘‘I just went down the off-ramp, slammed on my brakes, ripped open the door and pulled the old lady out onto the grass,’’ the 37-year-old said.
‘‘By the time I got there, you couldn’t see anything. She would have been dead within a couple of minutes just from smoke inhalation.’’
DG, who moved from Canada to New Zealand 15 years ago and owns a scaffolding company in Auckland, said he’d like to think someone would have done the same for his own grandmother.
Police confirmed a Toyota Corolla hatchback had crashed into a pole outside the police station at 2.45pm, and caught fire.
A police spokeswoman said a member of the public pulled the driver out of her car, and that she was initially in a serious condition.
‘‘She had suffered a medical event while driving, and was taken to the North Shore Hospital by ambulance.’’
By 3.20pm, the woman was in a moderate condition. DG said the driver appeared to be in her late 70s or early 80s.
She was unconscious when he lifted her from the car, and had bleeding lacerations on her arms.
‘‘Nobody else was doing anything – they were just standing there, frozen,’’ DG said from Takapuna Beach later.
‘‘I didn’t even think about it, just went in with my T-shirt over my face to avoid the smoke, as all these police officers poured out of the building.
‘‘Thinking about it now, it was pretty crazy. Pretty nuts. But someone had to do it.’’
DG lives in the North Shore suburb of Glenfield and had been heading home to pick up his wife and toddler when he spied the outof-control Corolla.
He arrived with the elderly driver’s blood on his arms, washed it off, then took his family to Takapuna Beach for the afternoon.
DG’s wife hadn’t been surprised to learn her husband was a hero — ‘‘he’s always helping people’’.