Crime & Safety

Good Samaritan Rescues Princeton Couple from Car Crash

Quick acting resident uses pickaxe to wedge dashboard off of victim, allowing her to breathe.

A quick acting South Brunswick resident helped rescue a couple who was trapped in a vehicle that flipped over following a crash in Monmouth Junction Friday evening.

At 5:58 p.m., officers responded to a motor vehicle accident on Friendship Road near Haypress Road. Police said a 70-year-old Princeton man was driving with his 60-year-old wife when he began to experience chest pains and appeared to suffer a heart attack.

The driver attempted to pull off the road prior to the crash, but blacked out with his foot pressed on the accelerator, according to police. The vehicle then accelerated off the road, hit a dirt pile, became airborne and flipped over. 
Officers arrived to find the male partially ejected from the crash, while his 60-year-old wife remained trapped in the car, which came to rest in the driveway of 107 Friendship Road, according to police.

Raymond Buck, 52, a resident of the home, ran to the vehicle after the crash to find the dashboard crushing the female passenger, police said. Buck then ran to his shed and grabbed a pickaxe, which he wedged against the dashboard to pull it off the woman’s chest allowing her to breath, police said.

The Monmouth Junction Fire Department arrived at the scene and worked for about 40 minutes to free the victim using the Jaws of Life. The Monmouth Junction First Aid squad and paramedics then transported the couple to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where both are listed in serious condition. 

"By all accounts it was Mr. Buck’s quick thinking and decisive action that saved this woman," South Brunswick Police Chief Raymond Hayducka said. "He pulled the dashboard back allowing her to breath while rescuers worked to cut her out of the vehicle. Mr. Buck represents the best of our community, and I thank him for his selfless act."


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