Prince Albert couple rescues 2 men from truck in slough

By Nigel Maxwell, paNOW.com

A Prince Albert man who helped save two lives Sunday night says he is not the real hero in the story.

Dale Peet and his wife, Leslie, were travelling home just west of Melfort, when she noticed a truck in the ditch with its lights on. The couple decided to take a closer look.

“It was so dark you couldn’t actually see they were upside down so we pulled up there and looked,” he said. “My wife opened the door and we could hear them banging on the window trying to get out.”

Peet ran from his truck and waded across the water while Leslie called 911.

Using a climbing belt he grabbed from the truck, Peet smashed the passenger side window. That’s when he saw two men trapped inside.

“The first guy, the driver, said he did not know whether he was upside down or backwards or what he was because it was so black,” Peet said.

Peet said the driver of the truck managed to get his seatbelt off, but the passenger was still trapped.

“It was a little scary for sure because the driver was having to hold the other guy’s head up out the water, he couldn’t do it himself,” he said.

Peet ran back to his truck and grabbed a knife to help cut the seatbelt. The three men, caked in mud from head to toe, then made their way to the dry bank where Melfort EMS was waiting.

Peet said he has come across other accident scenes in the past, but never experienced anything like this before.

Despite all that happened, he said the real hero is the driver of the truck.

“He held the guy’s head above water and if it wasn’t for him, his buddy would not have made it,” he said.

Peet works as the operations manager at the SaskTel Office in Prince Albert.

He said he is glad he always carries a survival kit with him. The day after the crash he purchased a seatbelt cutter, which now hangs on his key chain.