There was another rollover east of Ottawa this afternoon. By coincidence, a CTV news crew driving alongside watched it happen and called 911.
What happened next with strangers and first responders was heroic. This rollover happened around 12:30 on highway 17 near Alfred.
With a strength driven by adrenaline, one of the first rescuers on the scene pries open the driver's door.
Within seconds, there are no less than 4 people in the ditch, trying to help out,
“To help, give a hand,” says one rescuer.
Others line the road, helping to slow down traffic, or on a cell phone with 911.
“Within minutes, there were 3 or 4 cars stopped and then they just keep stopping and one passed us and backed up,” says Joyce Dallaire, who, together with her husband Ray, stopped and called 911.
The driver is a woman, trapped alone in her vehicle, but surrounded by several strong folks trying to reach her, trying to reassure her until paramedics and firefighters arrive.
“She's fine, looks fine I guess,” says another man who stopped to help, “She's moving so she should be okay.”
By the time first responders arrive, her rescuers have made sure of that.
“We travel a lot in Canada and U.S.,” says Joyce Dallaire, “and a lot of times, people pass by and don't want to be involved, they just pass by.”
Not this time. Not here, where people count on each other to catch them when they fall. And so, side by side with paramedics and firefighters, this little community is focused on this one mission and this one woman.
She is helped onto a waiting stretcher and off the hospital, lucky to walk away from this scene and thankful to those who made it happen.
