Wayne Officer Thought He'd Die During Superstorm Sandy Incident, But He Defied The Odds

WAYNE, NJ — Ten years ago, Robert Franco assumed he met his end. While responding to a Superstorm Sandy incident, a tree covered in live wires crushed the officer inside his Wayne police vehicle. His bulletproof vest restricted his airway. He couldn't reach for his radio to get help, because he couldn't move his arms.

The Wayne police officer — now a lieutenant with the department — takes pride in bringing control to chaos. But in that moment of responding to emergencies during the deadliest hurricane in New Jersey's recorded history, Franco's fellow first responders did the same for him.

Within minutes, he was out of the vehicle and off to the hospital. The ER doctor told Franco he'd likely never walk again or regain function in his arm. That fueled him even more to recover and eventually return to policing.

Franco never lost consciousness during the accident. With the 10-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy approaching — the storm hit the Garden State on Oct. 28, 2012 — he says he remembers everything.

Franco, 52, always dreamed of becoming a Wayne police officer, and he didn't want to end his career with the accident. But 10 years later — during a decade in which he completed a multiyear recovery, earned several policing awards and saw both his children and his family grow — Franco is back where he wanted to be.

"Certainly the accident and the storm puts a bookmark in your life — what happened before it, what happened after it," Franco told Patch. "You certainly live with the aftermath of it. But I’m happy to be recovered from it and back on the job now."

Almost A 'Very Different News Report'

Franco wasn't the only first responder potentially inches from death during the rescue. So was everyone who played a part in saving his life.

Before a tree smashed Franco's vehicle, the officer got a call. Trees dropped all around him, and one of them uprooted and ruptured a gas line. Franco pulled his vehicle next to John Neukum — Fire Company 5's ex-chief — for a status report. Franco wanted to know whether anyone in nearby homes would need to evacuate. That's when Neukum yelled "Tree!"

Franco ducked as low as he could in the front of his car but got pinned against the partition cage.

"The numbness started at my toes and worked its way up my body," Franco said. "I kind of just figured this is the way people die. Then I realized a couple minutes later that I wasn’t dead."

The tree struck Neukum's vehicle too, pinning him inside the car. He couldn't communicate with Franco. But Neukum wasn't seriously injured, and he reached for his radio and got help.

Mark McGrath — then a police captain and volunteer firefighter — reached in to check on Franco, who verbalized that his vest choked him. McGrath loosened the vest, giving Franco some relief as the first responders got him out. (In May 2013, then-President Barack Obama honored McGrath for his role in the rescue.)

The moment felt like an eternity, but the rescue took minutes.

"I didn’t know it at the time, but later looking at it, all of them put their lives at risk, because that tree was wrapped up in live wires," Franco said. "If one of those wires had arced that tree that was wet, it would’ve been a whole different news report."

The Path Back To Policing

Franco admits he's stubborn. If he wants something, he'll do everything possible to make it happen. During his initial recovery after the accident, he sometimes doubted the possibility of a full return to policing. But he was going to do everything possible to try, and he had a village on his side.

The officer's recovery began at St. Joseph's University Medical Center. He was discharged Dec. 12, 2012, and transported to the Kessler Rehabilitation Center in West Orange. Franco decided that, as long as he was at Kessler, he would do physical therapy every day.

Franco received constant visits from his children, sisters and mother — plus Wayne police and firefighters. Large groups came to Kessler every day to check on Franco, often bringing home-cooked meals. The support gave him strength.

"The support was truly unbelievable," Franco said. "It actually got to the point where — I felt so bad to even say it — I had to ask for one day a week where it’s just my kids visiting."

Franco regained his ability to walk within two weeks at Kessler. His arms took longer to recover, but he regained function. To this day, thunderstorms bring pins and needles to his thumb, forefinger and middle finger.

The officer returned to work in May 2013 for light duty — essentially desk assignments for four hours per day. Franco doesn't like sitting still, but he made the most of it and developed trainings — one of which became a larger, grant-funded program. He also took a promotional exam, returning to full duty in May 2014 as a sergeant.

In April 2020, Franco once again confronted chaos. The incident involved lethal force.

A police chase took multiple agencies to the interchange of Route 46, Route 23, and Interstate 80. The vehicle pursuit of Bradley G. Pullman ended when the man got out of his car while holding a handgun, according to state authorities who investigated the incident.

Pullman pointed the gun toward an occupied Mountain Lakes police vehicle, with a Wayne police car right behind them, said the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Several officers fired their service weapons at Pullman, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

State law requires the attorney general's office to conduct investigations into deaths that occur during encounters with law enforcement or while in custody. The office must present each investigation to a grand jury, which determines whether the evidence supports the return of an indictment. The incident put four officers, including Franco, under investigation. But a state grand jury voted Jan. 25 against filing charges, with the majority of jurors finding the officers justified in using lethal force.

• Read more: Cops Won't Be Charged For Fatal 2020 Shooting In Wayne

Once the grand jury cleared the officers, Franco began receiving several awards for his handling of the incident. While he said his pride for the job isn't specific to that moment, Franco said he takes pride in bringing control to chaos.

"Unfortunately, the long and short of it is, he pointed a gun at us, we pointed our guns at him," Franco said. "We went home, he didn’t."

And after weeks in the hospital and in rehabilitation post-Sandy, Franco understands the value of returning home. For Franco, that's Wayne — where he dreamed of becoming a police officer, joined Wayne Fire Company 5 at age 18 and then joined the police department nine years later.

His three children have grown up, with both sons working in construction and his daughter in a nursing program. Franco's daughter and oldest son are engaged and both have "very good significant others," he said.

Additionally, Franco met a new partner, who also has three children. The six of them are all around the same age and support each other. And if your mind went to the 70s sitcom, yes, they call the children "The Brady Bunch."

Franco will reach 25 years with the Wayne Police Department in February. He's still grateful for those who saved his life during Sandy.

"There were lifelong friends who I didn’t know were going to come to my rescue," Franco said. "But I guess you could say my friends turned into my heroes at the same time."