Solid waste collectors save woman’s life

Solid waste removal employees rescue Pictou County woman trapped under vehicle

Solid waste collector Matthew Deal was nearing the end of his shift in Bailey's Brook, Pictou County when he caught a glimpse of an SUV pointed towards a ditch on a side road that didn’t seem normal.

It was March 2 and he was training a new driver. They were minutes away from being done with their route for the day.

“You’re getting pretty excited at that point,” Deal said. “You see the end of the day and everything. You don’t really want to get taken off of what you’re doing at that point.”

But as he pulled up to the next stop, something nagged at him to go back.

“Something just stopped me,” he said.

He turned to the guy he was training, Boris Goldshtuab, and asked what he thought about the vehicle.

“Maybe they need help?” Goldshtuab said.

So Deal made the call to go back and investigate further.

“We went off our route which is kind of out of the ordinary, but given the circumstances, it was only going to take a minute,” he said.

As they exited the truck, they noticed a dog inside the vehicle.

Deal assumed maybe something had gone wrong with the vehicle and the owner walked away to make a call. But he kept looking.

“As I walked up the hill a little further to get a look at the other side, I see a torso and legs moving about and a head and a shoulder completely under the CRV and the ground smeared with blood and melted snow and mud.”

Immediately Deal sprang into action. He told Goldshtuab to go see how the person was doing while he jumped back into the truck to call 911. He also radioed another GFL truck that was in the area.

“I finished the call with them and then I immediately got down on my hands and knees and looked into this woman’s eyes so I could talk to her directly,” he said. “She was still fully conscious. She was very clear-speaking with everything she had to say.”

The other crew arrived and all of the men took off their jackets to wrap around the woman.

She was uncomfortably pinned under the car and was asking for them to help her get out.

Deal knew that you aren’t supposed to move someone who is injured but didn’t want to leave her with her head pressed into the ground. He made sure that was what she wanted before proceeding. Three of the men lifted up on the vehicle and one pulled her forward. The suspension lifted enough for them to be able to move her out enough that she was no longer being pushed into the ground

She told them that she had taken her garbage out around 7 a.m. and then started driving back up the hill. Halfway, she stopped to let her dog out for a run.

Deal figures she must not have put the car fully in park and it started to roll. He suspects she might have tried to stop it when she got caught underneath and was dragged.

“She was nicked and cut and gouged from one end of her body to the other,” he said.

When they found her it was around noon, so he believes she was trapped for around five hours.

Shortly after they got her in a more comfortable position, firefighters from the Barney’s River Fire Department and the Merigomish Fire Department arrived. They chocked the wheels to prevent the vehicle from moving anymore and put blankets on the woman to keep her warm until EHS was able to arrive and take her to the hospital.

A police officer handed the men back their jackets. As Deal looked at his, he could see blood stains. But he didn’t let that bother him.

“I took it home and I washed it and I’m wearing it today,” he said with a laugh.

Although he hasn’t had a chance to talk with her directly, he’s heard that the woman they helped was treated and released.

Deal isn’t sure what to think of the whole experience.

“I’m satisfied that she was recovered in time to go on living. I don’t really feel like I did anything special. I have no idea what happened in my head to make me go back. I don’t have an explanation for that.”

While it’s a remote area, he believes that in the five hours the woman was trapped there must have been others who passed by and didn’t see it. Why he was the only one who saw it and cared enough to investigate, he doesn’t know.

“I don’t know if I saved a life or if someone would have been along 10 minutes later,” he said. “I have no idea of that.”

Barney’s River Fire Chief Joe MacDonald believes Deal and his coworkers did exactly the right thing.

“I don’t know how long she would have lasted there by herself,” MacDonald said. “They definitely saved her life.”

Deal said it was what he would do for anybody.

“You don’t question who or why or how. You see somebody hurt, you have to help. That’s a basic instinct.”

“As I walked up the hill a little further to get a look at the other side, I see a torso and legs moving about and a head and a shoulder completely under the CRV and the ground smeared with blood and melted snow and mud.” Matthew Deal Solid waste collector