Truck driver with great timing saves man’s life

Right place, right time, right truck.

A truck driver with incredible timing and quick thinking helped save the life of a man whose pickup had flipped into a roadside pond, WCCO.com reports.

Scott Rosenberg stopped his semitrailer when he saw the smashed pickup in the pond on the morning of May 9 near Stillwater, Minn. The truck Rosenberg was driving happened to have a boom used to unload heavy cargo such as concrete pipes.

Rosenberg quickly surmised that anyone in the pickup needed immediate help. "The horn was honking, the lights were still on. There was a little bit of steam coming off it," said Rosenberg, describing the scene of the accident to WCCO.com.

Rosenberg told WCCO.com that his truck's boom is capable of moving 10,000 pounds, more than enough power to right an upside-down pickup. With the help of other good Samaritans, Rosenberg got the smashed pickup upright.

Rosenberg saw the driver, Nate Anderson, wasn't moving at first. "My heart just sank," Rosenberg told WCCO.com.

But then Anderson started moaning and rescue crews were able to get him out of the truck and to safety. He suffered a broken vertebra and severed tendons in his hand, but things could have been much worse were it not for Rosenberg.

"I did what most people would do—stop and help if they had they ability to," Roseberg told WCCO.com