Guillermo Peña was on his way on his Passola motorbike when life dealt him the card that turned him into a hero. He would not think twice when jumping into the choppy Caribbean to save two persons who fell into the sea when the dump truck they were riding fell Monday, 25 March 2019 afternoon into the sea at Km 19 of the Las Americas Expressway.
Peña told Hoy newspaper that he was able to determine that one of the men was dead, the other unconscious. He said he was able to rescue the unconscious person, and then a third person who had also jumped in to also help only to find himself drowning, too.
Peña says he also drives trucks and recognizes this is a difficult job.
Brigades of the firemen, Civil Defense, Dominican Armada and 911 Emergency assisted in the operation to lift the truck out of the water and back onto the ground on Tuesday, 26 March.
The toll of the accident was the death of the driver, 64-year old Juan García. Two injured persons were taken to the Darío Contreras Trauma Hospital, where one was left hospitalized. Of the two, one was a man who jumped into the sea to help rescue the truck victims.
Read more in Spanish:
Hoy
El Nacional
27 March 2019