Driving north on Pine Knob Road Sunday morning, Larry Giroux of Brandon Township came upon an unexpected sight.
“I drove past Bailey Lake Elementary, and on the right side of the road was a barn and a car lying on its roof,” said Giroux, 56. “A man was standing next to it and saw me coming, and he started waving his arms.”
The overturned car’s driver, a 27-year-old Independence Township woman, was trapped underneath. Giroux and the other man, a nearby resident, worked together to free her.
“The adrenaline flowed,” Giroux said. “We didn’t pick the car up. I said, ‘let’s give it a good push.’ We got it tilted up at an angle, and I said ‘I’ll hold it and you pull her out.'”
A neighbor called 911, and Independence Township sheriff’s deputies and firefighters quickly responded.
The driver was transported to Genesys Hospital where she is listed in stable condition.
She was traveling southbound on Pine Knob Road at about 9:15 a.m., March 7, when she lost control, went left of center, ran off the road and overturned. Not wearing a seatbelt, she was ejected from the vehicle, a 2008 Nissan Versa, and it landed on top of her. Alcohol does not appear to have been a factor, investigators said.
The crash remains under investigation.
This wasn’t the first time Giroux stopped to help at the scene of a traffic wreck.
“There was an accident on I-75 and M-15, eight or nine years ago,” he said. “A person was pinned under a Corvette.”
Why not just drive by?
“I wouldn’t do that,” he said. “It’s just my nature. When I see someone like that ? anyone would have done the same thing.”
? Phil Custodio