A woman who saved a suspected drunk driver from his burning car late Thursday admits she was briefly torn over whether to pull him out.
Laura Lee Grouchy and her sister were driving home through Torbay when another car came screaming at them in the opposite direction between the fire hall and District Drugs.
Grouchy says she slammed on the brakes to avoid the other car, as it hit the curb and flipped several times before the smouldering wreck came to rest on its side.
She says she and her sister thought it was the end for them.
“When we first saw the headlights and the speed he was going, I was absolutely positive we were dying,” she told the Tim Powers Show on VOCM. “I really, really thought we weren’t going home.”
Grouchy says with regular first-aid training through her work, she instinctively rushed to the car to help but was initially taken aback by the reek of booze from the car, and then the driver.
“I could smell the alcohol first, and then the beer cans started to move around and came out of the car, and then when he was out, the smell off him was horrendous.” she said. “And I was enraged, I’m not gonna lie. I was livid, I was really, really pissed off, but I knew that this person was not getting out on his own, there was no way.”
Grouchy got the driver out before his car burst into flames.
The 30-year-old man from Port Blandford is facing a list of serious charges including refusing the breathalyzer, assaulting a police officer and uttering threats.