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Woman praises brave bystanders who helped man in crash

Three pickups collided on Fraser Highway on Friday, and bystanders kept one out of the ditch until the driver could be rescued.
42008langleyFraserHwycrashphoto
Bystanders helped an older man who was driving one of three pickups involved in a crash on Fraser Highway near 244 Street on Friday. The crash was triggered by a man who was driving himself to hospital

A woman who witnessed a three-vehicle pile-up on Fraser Highway is saying several bystanders leapt into action, putting their own lives at risk to save one elderly man’s truck from crashing down an embankment on Friday.

According to Langley RCMP, a 77-year-old Langley man had suffered a medical event and was driving himself to hospital on Fraser Highway when he smashed his Dodge pickup into the back of a Chev pickup, which then in turn hit a GMC pickup, sending it partially down an embankment near 244 Street.

The 74-year-old Langley man in the GMC truck, whose white pickup was teetering and could have gone further down the shoulder, was unconscious and bleeding from his nose from the crash, said police.

Laurie Ng said she heard the bang and ran to her driveway to see what had happened, when she saw the pickup truck with the bleeding elderly man inside.

“I saw this one guy trying to prevent it from rolling and another guy at the bumper doing the same thing,” said Ng. “Then it was man after man throwing himself onto the tottering truck . . . Those brave men held tight until the wounded driver could be helped from his truck.”

That senior citizen did regain consciousness and Ng brought out her First Aid kit and a blanket and tended to the injured driver until paramedics arrived. That senior citizen did regain consciousness by the time police arrived. He was taken to hospital, as was the driver whose medical distress caused the three-way rear-ender, confirmed Langley RCMP. He didn’t have a valid driver’s license and was ticketed for that.

Everyone is going to be OK from the crash which shut down Fraser Highway for a short time.

All those who helped are heroes in Ng’s eyes.



Monique Tamminga

About the Author: Monique Tamminga

Monique brings 20 years of award-winning journalism experience to the role of editor at the Penticton Western News. Of those years, 17 were spent working as a senior reporter and acting editor with the Langley Advance Times.
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