For some people, when faced with an emergency, they want to lend a helping hand if they can.
For Ricky Lyons, that time came on Monday afternoon along Interstate 10 near the Ray Road exit when he witnessed an 18-wheeler that overturned in front of him. “I didn’t expect anyone to be under that truck and actually survive,” Lyons told reporters with ABC 15 in Phoenix.
Watching the crash unfold in front of him, Lyons said it was one of the scariest moments of his life. Rather than to keep driving past the accident, Lyons opted to be the Good Samaritan, stopped his vehicle and ran to help anyone who might have been hurt in the crash.
Lyons said that he heard screams coming from the overturned semi tractor-trailer rig and saw someone’s feet sticking out under the truck. “I just wanted to be a friend in that moment,” Lyons said. “I didn’t think about doing it. I just did it, and I would want someone to do it for me.”
Though he was mostly powerless to free the man himself, Lyons laid next to the man who was pinned beneath the big rig and talked to him. Lyons asked him about his family, his job, and kept reassuring him that help was on the way to keep him calm. Lyons was able to find out his name was Gustavo.
Emergency crews arrived on the scene and were able to cut through the wreckage of the truck and pull Gustavo to safety. A spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Public Safety said that one person was transported to an area hospital for treatment of injuries that are believed to be non-life-threatening.
The cause of the crash is still currently under investigation by DPS.
Lyons hopes that he will be able to meet Gustavo again someday, not with any expectation of thanks, but just to shake the hand of a new friend, he said.
