Tiverton Man Helps Save Men From Burning Car

Two Massachusetts residents are recovering from non life-threatening injuries from a car accident thanks to the efforts of a good Samaritan from Tiverton.

Stephen Jerome, of Tiverton, was driving home from work in Franklin, MA, at approximately 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night when he came upon a car crash on Route 495, according to Massachusetts State Police. He reportedly stopped, checked on the condition of the car’s two occupants, a 19-year-old man from Carver and a 21-year-old man from Middleborough. Jerome found both young men injured and then called 911.

Police reported that before the call ended, Jerome could hear screaming from the young men that the car was catching fire, and he rushed back and dragged the driver away from the burning car.

Coincidentally, Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Michael Popovics was commuting home on Route 495 southbound in Raynham, MA, when he also came upon the crash scene. The car had reportedly crashed into the right side of the bridge abutment, careened across the road and came to rest in the median strip.

As smoke and flames came from the car’s engine, Popovics found Jerome dragging one of the injured men away from the car and up an embankment, according to police. Both men then dragged the other victim from the side of the burning car to a safe location as the car became fully engulfed.

Troopers from from State Police barracks in Middleborough responded to assist as Raynham firefighters and rescue also responded to the scene. The driver, 19, and his passenger, 21, were both transported by ambulance to Rhode Island Hospital in Providence with serious, non-life threatening injuries, according to police. The Raynham Fire Department extinguished the fully engulfed car and assisted in the clean up of leaked fluids from the vehicle.

Police say the cause of the crash is still under investigation but driver fatigue is being examined as a potential contributing factor.