Crime & Safety

Statewide PDs: Passerby a Hero to Two Trapped in Car

Good Samaritan rescues pair who were suspended upside-down.

It's been kind of a slow summer week at many police departments around New Jersey.

No, really. With Patch serving nearly 100 communities throughout New Jersey, we don't usually have much trouble finding some seriously jaw-drop-worthy (if not head-smack-worthy) incidents each Monday to feature in our "OMGs from NJ PDs." There's a lot of things you can call New Jersey's criminal element—but brilliant and graceful don't always apply.

Like there was that time we told you about . And who can forget the ?

Find out what's happening in Basking Ridgewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

But ... this week has been kind of a slow week.

So this week, we're taking the opportunity to turn our attention away from the criminals and incidents that make you say "OMG, that's ridiculous," to one that makes you say "OMG, what a hero." .

Find out what's happening in Basking Ridgewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Two women who were driving through Toms River owe some serious thanks to a passerby who came upon their 2000 Volkswagen—which was overturned after crashing into a tractor trailer that had been parked in the right lane of the road with its emergency lights on.

"When [the driver] realized the trailer wasn’t moving she attempted evasive action but her vehicle rode up the ramp, turned clockwise, then overturned,” Police Chief Michael Mastronardy said in an email.

The two women were stuck, upside-down in the car, police said. But the passerby, whom the chief declined to name, cut them down, and they escaped the incident with only minor injuries.

That gets an "OMG" and a "job well done."


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