Minnigaff man honoured for crash rescue
Brave@Heart Award ceremony, attended by Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in The Great Hall, Edinburgh Castle, 2 October 2012 with award winner Allan Burns Marshall.
A MINNIGAFF paramedic was recently honoured for his part in rescuing a man from a submerged car following a crash on the A75.
Allan Marshall, Area Service Manager with the Scottish Ambulance Service, was one of 24 people presented with a Brave@Heart award by deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon in a ceremony at Edinburgh Castle but told the Gazette he was “just doing his job.”
Allan was called out to the crash near Kirkcowan in June last year, where he was faced with an upturned car in a dark marsh and cries for help.
Floodwater was quickly filling the vehicle and Allan forced his way through the bog to reach the driver, trapped in his seat with water rising around him.
Allan smashed the window with his torch before cutting the seatbelt off the man, who then fell down into the water.
Allan, who is a non-swimmer, said: “I had to just jump in and try to find him once he’d fallen into the water.
“It was pitch black so I couldn’t see anything. I managed to get hold of him and pull him back up, then out through the back window.”
Allan was also faced with releasing a second man in the car, who had sadly died.
Allan said: “I was just doing my job. It’s obviously nice to have a certificate like this but I don’t do the job for that sort of thing.”
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