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Trumbull road worker commended for helping save man trapped on lake
By Ed Runyan
warren
Tim Monroe, highway supervisor for the Trumbull County Engineer’s Office, says he was in the “right place at the right time” Sunday night when a Brookfield man’s sport utility vehicle slid off the road and onto a frozen Vienna Township lake.
But the Trumbull County commissioners saw his willingness to risk his life and tread out onto the lake to help rescue the man as more than that, giving him a commendation Wednesday for his efforts.
Monroe was checking road conditions and driving down Niles-Vienna Road about 9:20 p.m. when he saw the sport-utility vehicle of Wesley Swisher, 52, turned on its side, about 10 feet onto Girard Lake.
Monroe said Swisher was waving his hand and giving him the thumbs-up sign, apparently to indicate that he was OK. But Swisher was trapped because his door was facing down against the ice.
Monroe, a two-year employee of the county engineer’s office who also worked 37 years for the Liberty Township Road Department, called 911, but he and another man who stopped to help were concerned.
Monroe said he didn’t know if there were children in the vehicle, whether the vehicle might slip under the ice, and how deep the water was.
When the men reached the vehicle, Swisher asked them to break one of the windows so he could get out.
The vehicle was already “listing” because it had partially broken the ice. And it had started to take on water. Then they heard the ice crack, Monroe said.
The other man, who has not been identified, grabbed a rock and broke one of the windows, and together they lifted Swisher out of the car and off of the ice.
“We decided we needed to act before the EMTs arrived,” Monroe said. “We decided we needed to get him out as soon as possible.”
Swisher was “wobbly” as he walked away from the accident, but he suffered only minor injuries.
But Monroe’s night wasn’t over yet.
Thirty minutes later, he observed a car in a deep ditch along state Route 82. He stopped his vehicle and allowed the female driver to get inside his truck to warm up.
Ken Kubala, safety and compliance manager for Engineer Randy Smith, said the office would like to talk to the other man who helped with the rescue to recognize him as well.