A heroic dad helped a van driver following a crash at junction 25 of the M5 yesterday (July 19). Father-of-three Rob Hearle, from Burnham-on-Sea was on his way to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton when he witnessed the crash unfold.
Somerset Live reports that, as he was preparing to exit the motorway, a lorry collided with a van in front of him, causing it to flip. Rob raced out of his vehicle to check on the van driver and he explained how he had "feared the worst".
The van driver was miraculously unscathed, much to Rob's surprise. He recalled: "I was on the way to the hospital with my partner, Hollie, around 7.20am. We had to be there for an appointment at 7.30am.
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"We were just coming off at the exit slip for junction 25 when we saw a lorry swerve to the right and hit a van on the left. It completely flipped him over." Rob stopped and jumped out, in the hope that the van driver was still alive.
He described how the back of the vehicle had "caved in" and that it had come to rest on its side, saying: "When I looked through the window the bloke was crumpled up down at the very bottom so I told Hollie to ring the police and the ambulance. He looked completely out of it and I was fearing the worst.
"I don't know how I did it, but I managed to wrench the door open and call out to him. Eventually he came round and he started saying 'where am I? where am I?'.
"He was pretty shaken up. Then when he realised what had happened, he said 'help me, please help me'. I managed to grab one of his arms and pull him out. I couldn't believe he was okay, I honestly thought he was going to be dead."
He sat the man down on the side of his van and told him to "get his breath back". By this time, a crowd had gathered - including some people who said they worked in medicine.
"I explained to him that Hollie and I had to rush on, or we would miss our appointment. He seemed to be in good hands and the ambulance was on its way. He's probably in the same hospital as us now," Rob said.
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