Update: Sun City man saves his neighbors from overturned car. ‘To us he’s a local hero’
A brave neighbor came to the rescue of the overturned Mazda CX-5 that caused a power outage and gas leak in Sun City Monday. Thanks to his intervention, nobody was injured.
Mark Bijas, 71, and his wife were backing out of their driveway onto Pineapple Drive when it ran over an electrical transformer, flipped upside down, and crushed and gas meter, Bijas said. The car had just been purchased the previous Saturday.
“So we’re upside down and there’s natural gas pouring out,” Bijas said. “I don’t know how we managed to survive. I was just waiting for the car to catch on fire from gasoline, let alone natural gas.”
Many neighbors came out to survey the scene, but only one neighbor acted. Mike Spriggs, 72, who lives two houses down from Bijas, rushed to pull him and his wife out of the car.
“I was afraid of how I’d feel if I didn’t try to save somebody,” Spriggs said. “So I ran to the car and tried to open it up.”
“I had to get them out of there because there’s gas in the car,” he added.
When he’s not pulling Bijas out of upside down cars, Spriggs and Bijas play billiards together.
“To us he’s a local hero who put our safety before his own,” Bijas said. “I’m so grateful for that. I haven’t even talked to him since, but I’ve got to take them out to dinner, him and his wife.”
The Bluffton Township Fire District responded to the accident at around 11:20 a.m. Monday morning and evacuated nearby neighbors.
“We evacuated about 20 homes as a safety precaution, which is pretty standard when there’s a significant gas leak like that,” said the Fire District’s spokesperson Stephen Combs.
Less than 10 residents were impacted by the power outage, and power was fully restored by 2:00 p.m., the fire district said.
Bijas said he expects car to be totaled as a result of the accident.
This story was originally published November 22, 2023 at 2:02 PM.
