What a Patriot! Backup LB did aid car crash vic
IT APPEARS Patriots linebacker Darius Fleming was, indeed, a good Samaritan after all.
The backup linebacker said Wednesday that he helped a woman escape from a smoking car by kicking her window last week. That earned Fleming a good deal of praise before a hint of skepticism when multiple outlets reported that nearby towns could not verify that such an incident took place. Until late Wednesday afternoon, when the Walpole Police Department indicated that an accident matching Fleming’s description occurred last Thursday and that a woman said an unknown good Samaritan helped kick in her window and that she thought he was a Patriot.
Fleming said Wednesday that, last week after having just left treatment at Gillette Stadium, he saw a semi-truck make a sudden stop before a right-hand turn on Route 1, causing a car crash involving the vehicles behind the truck.
“I was about to go around it but I noticed that the lady in front of me — she kind of was jumping around the car, passenger seat, back seat,” Fleming recalled. “Then I noticed the car started to smoke and I didn’t really think much of it. I just thought she was trying to get out of the car then I realized the smoke was building up inside of the car so I was like ‘You know what, I probably should get out of here and try to assist her a little bit.’ I tried to open the doors. It wouldn’t work so then I was just like ‘I’ve got to get her out of here because I don’t know if this lady can breathe or what.’”
“I started banging on the window,” Fleming said. “It wouldn’t break so then I just started kicking the window. Eventually it broke. I pulled her out and made sure she was OK.”
Fleming said that, after pulling the woman out of the car, “I noticed my leg was bleeding pretty bad so I was like ‘I probably should get out of here.’ (I) came back here, got it bandaged up a little bit and then went to the hospital and they did the rest of the work.”
He received stitches on his leg. Fleming, a backup linebacker, played in the Patriots’ 27-20 win over the Chiefs just two days later.
Originally, Massachusetts State Police said they had no information about such an accident, though Walpole police later cleared that up.
“There was no fire involved in this crash however there was air bag deployment, which to the untrained eye can appear as if the vehicle is enveloped in smoke,” Walpole police said in a statement. “The officers on scene did indicate one of the vehicles did have a broken window. The operator of that vehicle did make statements to one officer that a male party ‘kicked in my window, I think he was a Patriot.’ This was not entered into the report as this was a standard motor vehicle crash report with no injury.”
“On arrival the individual in question was not on scene and due to the nature of the accident there was no follow up to this information as the identity to an unknown good Samaritan had no bearing on this report,” the statement continued.
The police department reached the woman in question on Wednesday afternoon, and she reiterated that a person she believed to be a Patriots player had indeed kicked in her window and helped her get out of her car.
“She said that she would like to remain anonymous but that she would like to express her thanks to the individual who came to her aid,” the department wrote.
During the confusion when no one seemed able to verify that the accident occurred, Fleming tweeted, “People are quick to try and bring you down. . . so sad.”
Safety Devin McCourty said Fleming eventually told his teammates about the matter.
“Darius was really quiet about it, but once the guys on the team got a hold of it, we forced him to give a speech and everything,” McCourty said. “I think him, if you ask him about it, he explained it very simply. He saw a woman’s car that looked like it was smoking and he just jumped out of his car and he’ll admit there was probably some easier solutions he could have done, but I think it was nice. It was nice and dramatic, kick the window in and pull her out.”