Only On 2: Long Beach Teen Uses Pocketknife To Save Victim In Overturned Car
LONG BEACH (CBSLA.com) — A 16-year-old and his handy pocketknife are both being hailed for helping save a woman who was involved in a car accident in Long Beach.
The woman crashed through a guardrail Tuesday near an on-ramp to the 710 Freeway and plunged down a steep embankment, not far from the teen's house.
The woman's car also overturned.
KCAL9's Peter Daut spoke to the hero teen.
Not only does Andrew Franco not think of himself as a hero, saving people for him is becoming rather routine.
The crash Tuesday was the second accident in a month where's he's helped a victim to safety.
In the crash Tuesday, the junior at Wilson Junior High credits the pocketknife for being handy.
"All that was going through my mind was I have to see if I can help this person, save this person," Franco said.
The pocketknife tool helps break a car window.
"I broke the window open, and then I helped get her out, pull her out," he says.
Franco says he dragged the victim 30 feet from the crash, before running to grab a first-aid kit. Paramedics soon arrived and took the woman to a hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries.
"I did it because I had to," he said.
Incredibly, just eight days ago, it was also Franco to the rescue. In the same location, a man's car also flew off the side of the freeway.
In the first crash, the man was not seriously injured.
"I just feel obligated to help someone, help another human being that's in need," said the teen.
Franco told Daut he plans to join the Marine Corps after high school.
He told Daut that cars going down the same embankment is not new; he first started noticing it a few years ago.
Franco says he wants the city to fix the on-ramp.
"I want them to put a guardrail there," he says. "It's going to happen in the future, car crashes there. Least we can do is make it safer."
