Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Praise for crash hero
Ellen diverted traffic at smash site
A WOMAN has been hailed a hero for her quick-thinking actions at a crash scene.
Ellen Macfarlane was heading home on Saturday night when she came across a crash scene shortly before 8pm.
A biker had been involved in a collision and was lying at the side of the road where the M2 meets the A26 northbound in Co Antrim.
Although the 23-year-old said she was “only doing what anyone else would do”, the PSNI singled her out for praise as she stood at the side of the road to slow traffic approaching the crash. Ellen, from Ballymena, Co Antrim, said: “There’s been a lot said about me but there were a lot of other people involved.
“It was a young fella and his girlfriend who I think saw it happen, I didn’t see it happen I just came round the corner moments later, they called the ambulance.
“The timing was impeccable, the Red Cross ambulance pulled up one minute after with two paramedics and they came to help.
“They got him stabilised until an ambulance arrived. It’s just not what you expect to come across on your way home.
“It happened on a very bad bend and I was coming round the corner and just saw their hazards and managed to get across to the hard shoulder.
“I jumped out of the car and thought the worst. I just kept seeing more cars coming round the corner. I just thought the best thing to do, I couldn’t help medically so I thought it was best to try and slow the traffic.
“It could have been a terrible crash. To me it was just common sense, the first thing that came to my head was something really bad is going to happen if I don’t warn the other drivers.”
A PSNI spokesman on Facebook praised Ellen and said if it was not for her actions there could have been fatalities.