A Maryland State Police trooper maneuvered a tow truck, without training, to help save its operator’s life when he got trapped under an SUV in Montgomery County on Monday morning, police said.
It happened shortly before 10:30 a.m. when the tow trucker operator was towing vehicles from a crash on the ramp from eastbound Interstate 495 to southbound Colesville Road in Silver Spring, according to authorities.
The 51-year-old man was working to get a Chevrolet Equinox involved in the crash on the back of the tow truck.
When he went to attach the winch to the underside of the SUV, it slipped off the truck bed and fell on him.
Trooper Jason Reid, from the Rockville Barrack, got in the tow truck and used it to lower the truck’s bed to the ground. He repositioned it underneath the front of the SUV.
Reid used the tow truck’s bed to lift the car off of the man.
Reid operated the tow truck without any prior training on how to use it.
The driver was taken to the hospital for treatment. Police didn’t say how badly he was injured and also didn’t identify him.
