Helpers as Heroes

Drunk-Driving Accident, Hit-and-Run: Family Says Thank You

The car was severely damaged in the accident—Dad Dimitri is now thanking all the people who helped.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Feuerwehr Kremsmünster, zVg)

A drunk driver crashes into the car of a young family from Steyr—but immediately after the accident, something happens that still deeply moves the father to this day. Strangers, a courageous witness, and compassionate helpers turn a nightmare into a story full of hope.

There are days when you suddenly realize how quickly it can all be over. A young family from Steyr, on their way home from a vacation in Tyrol. Dad Dimitri is driving 50 km/h in a 70-zone in Kremsmünster when he glances briefly to the left: “I saw something racing toward me out of the corner of my eye and didn’t even realize what it was. All I knew was: ‘Here comes the crash.’” And crash it did. A minibus ignored a stop sign and was traveling way too fast. It would later turn out that the driver had a blood alcohol level of 1.6 per mille.

At the last moment, the father jerks the steering wheel to avoid the worst: “At that moment, all I could think about was my daughter and my wife in the back seat,” he says. He continues: “I heard a ringing in my ear, saw smoke, and my daughter said: ‘What was that, what was that?’ And then she started crying really loudly.” The car is badly damaged, and the family is in shock. And while the injured father gets out of the car, the driver who caused the accident simply drives on, trying to flee.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Markus Wenzel, stock.adobe.com)

The other story begins
And this is exactly where the other story begins. A witness gives chase and even manages to wrest the keys from the driver: “To me, he’s the hero of the day. You’ve got to have some guts to do that. You never know what kind of people they are,” says the dad. Meanwhile, more and more people from the surrounding houses are coming to help the young family. A nurse is among them; everyone wants to help—even before the emergency responders arrive.

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Two-Year-Old with Positive Memories
According to her dad, his little daughter Helena (2) doesn’t remember the crash or the fear the evening after the accident. Instead, she remembers being allowed to sit in the ambulance and the fire truck. So the terrible experience turned out to be somewhat positive after all—a brave witness, neighbors who were there immediately, and emergency responders who, with their professionalism, perfectly distracted the two-year-old. And that should be the story of this day. Not the accident, not the drunk driving. But what happened afterward.

Please, more of this!