MINERVA, Ohio — The heroic actions of several people helped save the life of a motorist on Christmas Eve after a car in Stark County was impaled by a guardrail in a crash.
According to the Sandy Creek Joint Fire District, the crash happened around 8:30 p.m. in the 2600 block of Anderson Avenue NE, Minerva.
Following the crash, the driver was trapped in the vehicle. A passenger was able to climb out of the car.
Passersby stopped at the crash site and held up the guardrail that impaled the car to keep the driver from being crushed.
"We don’t always have people to stop by and provide assistance. In this case, these people probably did help reduce the patient's injuries that he sustained and made for a quicker recovery," said Sandy Creek Joint Fire Chief Aaron Stoller. "In small town America where we live down here, that’s still prevalent for people to stop and assist."
A short time later, emergency crews arrived and were able to extricate the driver.
Both the driver and passenger were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
"The way the guardrail went in and out of the vehicle, the probability of someone surviving that is not very high," said Stoller.
Authorities said the crash was likely caused by poor weather conditions.
Watch live and local news any time:
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
