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Good Samaritan prayed with woman, held her hand after wrong-way crash

By and FOX 2 Staff
Published  March 11, 2024 10:59pm EDT
Dearborn
FOX 2 Detroit

Driver helps women injured in wrong-way crash

Police say both women later died from injuries sustained in the crash, but Michael Rucker did his best to assist at the scene.

DEARBORN, Mich. (FOX 2) - On March 2, Michael Rucker was driving home to Lincoln Park after a late shift at the Ford Truck Plant in Dearborn when a wrong-way driver came speeding towards him and others on I-75 near Outer Drive, he said.

"It came right through the middle and got this other vehicle and both cars exploded," Rucker said. "One flew through the air, and it crashed against the wall."

Rucker recounted jumping out of his car to try and stop traffic. He then ran to the car that had been going the wrong way. It was a 21-year-old woman from Garden City, according to police.

"I pulled her body out and I carried her away from the car and I laid her down," Rucker said.

He then tried to help the other driver – a 56-year-old woman from Brownstown, according to investigators.

"I reached in and I pulled the lock up and I opened the door and …she was gone," Rucker said.

Realizing there was nothing else he could do for the 56-year-old victim, Rucker focused in on the first woman he saw; police were performing CPR on her.

"Her eyes came open. She wasn’t able to talk. But I was praying with her, I was holding her hand," Rucker said. The policeman was doing CPR, and two more Lincoln Park policemen showed up and they took turns doing CPR until the ambulance got there."

Rucker's training from 10 years in the U.S. Army Reserves came in handy during this crash.

"Different things happen in the army – guys get hurt, you help with those accidents and injuries," he said. "I worked out in the ocean on the Exxon oil rigs and a lot of guys got hurt out there, and you deal with those kinds of injuries too."

According to police, both women later died from injuries sustained in the crash.

Rucker said the incident makes him think about all the dangers lurking on today’s roadways.

"The cell phones, and all the gadgets on the cars – it kind of takes our attention away from what's going on in front of us," he added. "We’re probably seeing an increase in accidents nowadays."

State police said they are still investigating the crash while waiting for autopsy findings to determine if impairment could have been a contributing factor.