It is how these Officers "Live" that makes them "HEROES":
On
At approximately 0700 hrs, Tpr. Rogers was just finishing up a hit and run crash and was heading to a local residence to look for the suspected operator. Hearing this on the radio, Tpr. Gross began to head to Tpr. Rogers location for back up. Tpr. Brandt was working in the next county just a few miles down the road and was just finishing up with an incident. Tpr. Brandt also heard this radio transmission so he radioed Tpr. Rogers to see if he needed further assistance.
As Tpr. Gross was traveling towards Tpr. Rogers’s location, he observed a vehicle with a brake light out. As he followed this vehicle, the occupants were acting suspicious, looking back as his vehicle several times. When this vehicle made a turn without signaling, Tpr. Gross attempted to conduct a traffic stop on the vehicle. The vehicle began to slow as if to pull over, and then it sped up in an attempt to flee from Tpr. Gross.
Tpr. Gross radioed Pennsylvania State Police Tunkhannock informing them that he was in a pursuit. Tpr. Rogers and Tpr. Brandt heard this radio transmission and immediately headed to Tpr. Gross’s location to assist. As the vehicle traveled South on SR 29, Tpr. Rogers took up a stationary position and attempted to stop the vehicle by deploying spike strips on the roadway. The vehicle drove around the spike strips and continued South on SR 29. As the vehicle was on a left curve in the roadway, it traveled into the oncoming lane to pass a slower moving vehicle. While traveling in the wrong lane, the suspects’ vehicle struck Tpr. Brandt’s vehicle head on as Tpr. Brandt was traveling the opposite direction on a blind curve. The pursuit and collision were recorded on the mobile video recorder in Tpr. Gross’s vehicle.
After impact, Tpr. Gross stopped his vehicle and immediately checked the condition of the occupants and passenger of both vehicles. Tpr. Rogers arrived seconds after Tpr. Gross.
Both Tpr. Gross and Tpr. Rogers observed Tpr. Brandt pinned behind the wheel of his patrol vehicle, unconscious. The operator of the fleeing vehicle was slumped between the seats and the passenger had been ejected, lying on the road just outside the passenger side door.
As Tpr. Gross and Tpr. Rogers were attempting to free Tpr. Brandt from his vehicle, they observed flames coming from under the dashboard. Fire and smoke quickly began to consume the vehicle. As Tpr. Gross attempted to free Tpr. Brandt, Tpr. Rogers went around to the passenger side and was fighting the flames coming from the dashboard with a fire extinguisher. Tpr. Brandt’s legs were pinned under the steering wheel and the seat belt was wrapped around his weapon and leather gear, preventing him from being removed.
As both Troopers worked on freeing Tpr. Brandt, Mr. Dennis “Barny” Dobinick, a volunteer fireman, arrived on scene and offered assistance. Tpr. Gross told Mr. Dobinick “we need help getting Truman out of the car.” (Tpr. Gross recalls that Mr. Dominick’s jaw dropped, he later found out that Mr. Dobinick and Tpr. Brandt were long time friends). After fighting the fire and smoke and attempting to free Tpr. Brandt for approximately 4 minutes, they were able to free Tpr. Brandt from his vehicle.
As soon as Tpr. Brandt was out of the vehicle and lying beside it, Tpr. Gross, assisted by Tpr. Rogers, stumbled to a grass area approximately 20 feet away where he could be seen on the mobile video camera of his car on his hands and knees, gagging and coughing from the smoke he breathed in.
When Tpr. Gross and Tpr. Rogers staggered away for a breath of air, Mr. Dobinick laid his body across Tpr. Brandt’s body, shielding him from the flames and debris that was falling down from the fire. After approximately 10 seconds, Tpr. Gross ran back over to Tpr. Brandt and with the assistance of Mr. Dobinick, they pulled Tpr. Brandt to safety.
While Tpr. Gross and Mr. Dobinick pulled Tpr. Brandt to safety, Tpr. Rogers ran over to the suspect’s vehicle. Tpr. Rogers pulled the suspect who was ejected from his vehicle to a location safely away from the burning vehicle. Attempts to free the operator of the fleeing vehicle were made but the operator of the fleeing vehicle was unable to be removed prior to the vehicle becoming totally engulfed in flames. Both operator and passenger of the fleeing vehicle died as a result of this collision.
Tpr. Brandt was taken from the scene via life flight and spent 10 days in intensive care. We believe the fact that Tpr. Brandt was wearing his vest helped reduce his level of injury by distributing the impact of the crash, and may have helped save his life. Tpr. Brandt is alive today because of the heroic actions of Tpr. Gross, Tpr. Rogers, and Mr. Dobinick.
It was also found that the two people in the other vehicle that died were the ones that had done numerous break-ins to houses in the area.
Tpr. Brandt has no memory of this event and continues to recover.
GOD BLESS
OUR
LAW ENFORCEMENT