A driver of a Volkswagen Beetle was making a right turn in suburban Philadelphia when he collided with an e-bike rider on the shoulder of a road.
The driver jumped out of his car and ran to the passenger side, but only the woman’s legs were visible. He tried to lift the roughly 2,000-pound car, but it was too heavy.
Chrissy Vollmer, who owns a sign shop near the crash site in Prospect Park, said she heard the woman yell: “Get this car off of me.”
“It’s a sound that you can’t really ignore,” said Vollmer, 47, who called 911.
In the ensuing seconds Monday morning, Vollmer and other bystanders rushed to the car to help, which local police called “courageous, selfless and potentially lifesaving.”
The driver and Vollmer tried lifting the car to no avail. Amelia Cannon, who works at a home care agency next to the crash site, heard the woman cry for help and rushed from her office to assist. A FedEx delivery driver ran over a few seconds later, followed by another man.
The group counted down from three and tipped the side of the car a few inches off the street — just as a police officer arrived on the scene. In a video of the rescue, more people seemed to show up out of nowhere to keep the car in place and to pull the bike rider out from underneath.
The rider, who police identified as a 44-year-old woman from Ridley Park, was free within a minute of the crash, Prospect Park Police Chief David Madonna said.
The woman was transported to a local hospital with upper body injuries but is in stable condition and expected to recover, Madonna said.
“When you’re dealing with a trauma patient, every second counts,” Madonna said. “If we would have had to wait for some type of heavy equipment to remove that vehicle, or use other means to extricate her from that position, things could’ve certainly been worse for her.”
Madonna said he doesn’t expect anyone will be charged. He said the driver, whom he identified as a 66-year-old man from Prospect Park, made a legal turn and wasn’t at fault.
After the e-bike rider was free, she thanked the people around her, Vollmer said. Vollmer and Cannon said they returned to their jobs after the rescue but struggled to focus because their adrenaline was flowing.
A few days later, they said they were surprised that people were commending them on social media after local news outlets covered the story.
“It’s kind of normal if someone’s in need of help,” Vollmer said, “you want to help them.”
Still, in his three decades working in law enforcement, Madonna said he has rarely seen people make as much of an effort to help a neighbor as they did Monday.
“When you put yourself in potentially harm’s way, and you don’t stop to consider the risks that you’re exposing yourself to, how can you not be impressed by that?” Madonna said. “That is humanity at its finest.”
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