Hero Trucker Saves Life

-repost of Reed Black’s article-

“Scott Rosenberg says he can only describe his critical role in the rescue of a driver who was pinned in his submerged pickup truck as “being in the right place at the right time.”

Rosenberg, an OOIDA senior member from Isanti, MN, said he had just delivered his load of concrete products and was traveling north on Manning Trail near Stillwater, MN, on Thursday, May 9, when he saw a couple of cars on the shoulder and another car make a U-turn behind him.

That’s when he saw that a pickup truck had gone off the road and was upside down in a pond.

“I knew that if somebody was in there they would drown because you couldn’t see any of the windows. All of the windows were underwater, and the wheels were sticking up in the air,” Rosenberg told “Land Line Now” on Friday, May 17.

He said at first he and two other guys tried to use crow bars and a big bar to pry open the doors of the truck, which was heavily damaged. When that didn’t work, the guys asked him if he could “flip the truck over.”

Rosenberg, who drives for Morrell and Morrell LP in Elk River, MN, also happened to have the only piece of equipment – a boom – on his trailer that could save the driver, who was pinned in his truck underwater.

“I threw it in reverse and backed across the road to the other shoulder and aligned my boom up with the vehicle,” Rosenberg told “Land Line Now” on Friday, May 17. “So I threw them a couple of chains. I jumped on my boom and swung it over, and they had the chains hooked up to the pickup truck already. Then I pulled it up and over and back on its wheels.”

Once the pickup was righted, Rosenberg said he and the other rescuers were unable to get the doors open and waited for emergency responders to cut open the doors.

Cheri Dexter, patrol division commander with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, told “Land Line Now” that Rosenberg’s quick thinking and the boom on the back of his trailer definitely saved the driver’s life. She said that even if the first responders had been able to open the doors of the submerged vehicle – without the boom to pull the vehicle out of the water, the outcome would have been much different because the driver was pinned.

Dexter said she isn’t sure of the condition of the driver, but that he sustained serious injuries and was taken to a nearby hospital.

Dexter added that the Washington County, MN, Sheriff’s Office is considering Rosenberg for a citizen’s life-saving award.

“Timing is everything. He happened to be at the right place at the right time for this kid. And had he not been there, it would have definitely been a different outcome,” Dexter said.”

 

You can view the original post and other interesting stories at http://www.landlinemag.com/Story.aspx?StoryID=25204