SHIP HARBOUR – A pair of Eastern Shore men are being praised for their bravery after removing a motorist from a vehicle involved in a crash moments before it went up in flames here earlier this month.
One of the rescuers, Kerry – who asked that The Journal not use his surname – described the feat as “no big deal.”
“Anyone would have done it,” he said in a phone conversation from Sober Island, near Sheet Harbour.
In a March 2 press release, the Halifax District RCMP thanked two men – a 64-year-old from Sober Island and a 48-year-old from Popes Harbour – for “their courage in rescuing” the driver of a white Dodge Ram, which was involved in a crash on the previous day (March 1).
At approximately 4:30 p.m. on March 1 detachment members, firefighters and EHS responded to the report of a three-vehicle collision on Highway #7 in the rural Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) community. Police learned that a white Dodge Ram and a grey Dodge Ram – travelling in opposite directions – collided, and then a Ford F-150 – which was behind the grey vehicle – hit both trucks.
When RCMP officers arrived at the scene, the five occupants of the white Dodge Ram had already exited the vehicle, which was then engulfed in flames. The driver – a 61-year-old Dartmouth man – was airlifted to Halifax with serious injuries, while EHS transported a youth passenger to hospital with serious injuries. Two other youths – and a 61-year-old Dartmouth woman – were also taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The driver and lone occupant of the grey Dodge Ram, a 41-year-old Bedford man, was treated by EHS at the scene.
The passenger in the Ford F-150, a 66-year-old Sober Island woman, was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, while the driver – a 64-year-old Sober Island man – was treated at the scene by paramedics.
Kerry, who confirmed that he was the driver of the Ford F-150, offered in the March 6 interview, “We are trying to regain our strength.”
Declining to comment on how the rescue unfolded, he said he was glad that everyone “made it out alive.”
Highway #7 was closed for several hours on the day of the accident, while investigators reconstructed the scene.
Police indicated that they continue to investigate the “serious motor vehicle collision.”
