Bystanders help rescue motorcyclist
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — The students knew they had to act quickly when they disregarded the dangers of approaching a smoking car and rushed to help lift it so a man — trapped beneath with a motorcycle just feet away in flames — could be freed.
Abbass Sharif, 28, remembers only that something needed to be done as he, a fellow Utah State University doctoral candidate, and more than a half dozen others lined up on one side of the 4,000-pound car. They were able to lift it within moments, allowing one of the rescuers to pull Brandon Wright to safety.
“The chance of him dying if we don’t do it is like 100 percent,” Sharif said, recalling the sequence of events that played out Monday in Logan, a college town roughly 90 miles north of Salt Lake City. “If you weigh the chance of you being in danger, that’s going to be low, like 20 percent, compared to 100 percent.”
After the heroic act, Assistant Logan Police Chief Jeff Curtis said one could “only speculate what the outcome would have been” had none of the rescuers sprung to action.
For their bravery, the rescuers are being called “heroes” and “angels,” though none want the labels.
“That’s a big title,” said Sharif, a doctoral candidate from Lebanon. “I don’t consider myself a hero. It’s just our humanity ... Everyone is going to help.”
Their few minutes of heroics were captured on video and have gone viral on the Internet. The man they saved — the 21-year-old Utah State University student — is grateful.
“I’m just very thankful for everyone that helped me out,” Wright told The Associated Press by telephone from his hospital bed. “They saved my life.”
At a hospital news conference on Tuesday, Wright’s uncle, Tyler Riggs, recounted what Wright told his family about the accident.
The crash happened near Utah State University, where Wright was headed to study at a computer lab, Riggs said. The BMW was pulling out of a parking lot.
Tire and skid marks on the highway showed that Wright laid the bike down and slid along the road before colliding with the car, Curtis said.
Riggs said Wright tried to protect himself by laying his bike down.
