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Truck Driver Helps Save Another Driver’s Life

LENOX TOWNSHIP — A water truck driver walked away from a crash with another tanker on Route 407 in Lenox Township on Thursday. That crash in Susquehanna C...

LENOX TOWNSHIP -- A water truck driver walked away from a crash with another tanker on Route 407 in Lenox Township on Thursday.

That crash in Susquehanna County might have saved both driver's lives.

"I told her to hit me. I thought I could get her stopped, well. That didn't work," said Joe Delancy.

Delancy and a female driver were each carrying water from a gas site in their trucks.

State police said the brakes in the truck the woman was driving stopped working.

That's when Delancy drove in front of her and let her hit him, so she could slow down.

"She kept picking up speed and she hooked me right here and over we went," said Delancy.

"That's pretty brave. He wasted his own truck to save her because she wouldn't have made it, nope," said Terry Stone from Smitty's Construction.

Stone was doing construction on a home near the crash site.

When he heard tires screeching, he ran down to help and pulled the female driver out of the truck.

State police said the 58-year-old woman was taken the hospital with minor injuries.

"Oh, it was a mess. She was in down in the bottom of the truck by the door and I had to get her out of there," said Stone.

The women's truck came to its final stop in brush, which is about 25 feet away from the nearest home.

"It was just too close. Just too close.," said Diane Kwiatkowski.

The red truck rolled onto Kwiatkowski's property. When she heard the crash, she called 911.

"I was in my kitchen and I heard the loud screeching of brakes, which is not normal for this area. I looked up and the next thing I knew, there this truck was outside my mailbox," said Kwiatkowski.

State police said if it wasn't for Delancy's quick thinking, the crash could have been tragic.

Delancy said he's going to take a few weeks off from driving trucks until he figures out what to do next.

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