Monday, August 24, 2020 \u2013 \u201cI left my car so I could help get them out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some days the local news can refresh your spirits.\u00a0\u00a0 Some days the news can knock you out with wonder and, at the same time, send you on your way laughing with joy.<\/p>\n
This local news story we posted on March 25, 2014, from the first year of the\u00a0\u201cWork Day, Hard Times Poetry List\u201d (1st<\/sup> posted in late September 2013 as the Detroit Bankruptcy was still stirring deep anxieties in the city).<\/p>\n Unlike our usual posts, this is a story, not a poem, unless any piece of writing that sends us on our way with wonder counts as poetry.<\/p>\n Have a blest day,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n john sj<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Today\u2019s Post<\/strong><\/p>\n Detroit <\/em>\u2014 Freeing people trapped in overturned cars is getting to be a bit of a habit with Lance Swain.<\/p>\n For the second time in about a month, the Detroit resident has helped rescue victims of rollover crashes on area roads. The latest occurred shortly before 1 p.m. Tuesday as Swain was returning from lunch.<\/p>\n \u201cI was driving down the Lodge near Howard Street and I saw a Jeep on its side,\u201d said Swain, who works for Detroit City Connect, a non-profit agency that helps Detroit area non-profits and the government to work together to solve local problems.<\/p>\n \u201cI pulled up close and asked a bystander if there was anyone inside and he said, \u2018Yeah, two people.\u2019 I left my car so I could help get them out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Swain, the victims were two women who were more or less dangling from their seat belts.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were conscious but shook up pretty bad,\u201d said Swain, the married father of a 5-year-old daughter and a nearly 2-year-old son. \u201cWe got the passenger side door open, and I slid inside. The first lady was the passenger, and I had to undo her seat belt and then I pulled her out.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the driver\u2019s foot was stuck and she couldn\u2019t stand up so I couldn\u2019t get her out.\u201d<\/p>\n Pinned and panicky, the driver told Swain she was scared and that her chest hurt.<\/p>\n \u201cI stayed with her; she was holding me,\u201d Swain said. \u201cI told her to breathe, gave her some water and put a scarf around her neck to keep her warm. When the paramedics arrived, they decided to remove her through the rear hatch of the Jeep.\u201d<\/p>\n Swain let down the seats and helped the paramedics remove the woman.<\/p>\n And then he went back to his job at City Connect.<\/p>\n \u201cThe funny thing is the same sort of thing happened about a month ago on Grand River,\u201d Swain said. \u201cWe were coming back from the Black History Museum and there was a car that had been hit and was on its side. My cousin and I hopped out and did pretty much the same thing for the two people who were inside.<\/p>\n \u201cSo when this crash happened on the Lodge it was pretty much like, \u2018Let me out of my car and get to work.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Swain demurs when anyone suggests that he might be a hero.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a man and that\u2019s what a man does,\u201d Swain said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Monday, August 24, 2020 \u2013 \u201cI left my car so I could help get them out of there.\u201d Some days the local news can refresh your spirits.\u00a0\u00a0 Some days the news can knock you out with wonder and, at the … Continue reading