Good Samaritan pulls mother, child from rollover crash in Schaumburg
According to a newly released traffic crash report, Schaumburg police cited the other driver - a Sleepy Hollow woman in her 40s - for not stopping at an intersection whose traffic signal was not working, not the Itasca woman rescued along with her 1-year-old son from a rollover crash by a passer-by at Woodfield Road and National Parkway on Oct. 11.
An Itasca woman and her young son can thank their safety belt, child car seat and the intervention of a selfless passer-by for escaping serious injury when their minivan flipped over after a collision with an SUV in Schaumburg last week.
George Wood of Northlake, a local service technician for Mr. Rooter Plumbing, was on his lunch break at about 10:10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11, when he came upon the scene of the crash at Woodfield Road and National Parkway.
A Sleepy Hollow woman in her 40s, driving a 2015 Honda Odyssey, accidentally entered the intersection where the traffic signal was not working, according to police.
Her vehicle struck the 2010 Toyota Highlander driven by the Itasca woman whose 1-year-old son was inside, causing it to flip over.
After stopping at the scene, Wood first tried to open the Toyota's door, but it was jammed.
He went back to his vehicle to get a crowbar, which he used to break out a window of the overturned vehicle.
He then used a pocket knife to cut the woman's safety belt.
During the extrication, the woman kept shouting, "Save my son, save my son!," who was still buckled into his child car seat and suspended upside down, Wood said.
Wood broke out the back window and cut the entire child seat with the boy in it from the back seat.
Schaumburg Fire Capt. Mark Nelson said paramedics arrived just in time to receive the child in the seat as Wood passed them out through the broken window.
"You'd think it was a movie," Nelson said. "Witnesses were applauding. He did a good job. He was a very nice man."
As soon as paramedics and police took charge of the scene, Wood left to return to work.
"I wanted to make sure I was saving them," he related through a statement released by Mr. Rooter Plumbing. "I didn't do it to be a hero. I just wanted to help."
The mother, who is in her 20s, suffered only minor injuries and the boy none at all, Schaumburg officials said.
The Sleepy Hollow woman was cited for entering the intersection without stopping. She was not injured.
Both Nelson Schaumburg police Sgt. Christy Lindhurst cited this as an example of what proper seat belt use and proper installation of a child safety seat can accomplish.