May 29, 2005

Two Georgia linemen called heroes

Two Georgia Bulldogs football starters are being hailed as heroes for pulling three adults and a baby out of badly damaged vehicles after being involved in a five-car accident caused by a drunk driver.

OLs Russ Tanner and Dennis Roland were not injured when the truck they were driving was knocked into a ditch during the accident. Both players got out of their vehicle and began to help the others that were involved.

At first, Tanner went to Leachman's truck, and Roland called 911 to report the accident, Roland said. When Tanner got to Leachman's truck, he took an unidentified 11-month-old baby from the 22-year-old unidentified woman in the truck and handed the baby to Roland, he said. He then helped the woman out of the truck, he said.

"The side of the truck was really messed up," Tanner said. "It wasn't just the window, it was the whole side of the truck. It was a big hole. I just helped them get out of the truck. They were pulling themselves out."

Tanner then went to the second tractor-trailer involved in the wreck and helped 44-year-old Wendell Sumerlin and an unidentified adult female out of that truck, according to the state patrol report. He helped both of them escape a fire that had broken out around Johnson's truck.

"They were both really dazed and kind of falling out, I just tried to help them not hit the ground when they fell," Tanner said. "I was able to get the lady to her feet and help her over to a ditch and away from the fire. We just kept telling (the man in the truck) to keep rolling, keep rolling, and he rolled over to us in the ditch.

"I don't think that a hero tag should be applied to either one of us. We were just doing what we thought should be done at the time. Neither one of us really had time to think about what was happening. We were worried about the other people."

After Tanner and Roland had helped the first two families, they heard observers begin to yell that a person was still in the other truck, Tanner said.

"I ran around to look and when I ran around, you couldn't even see the cab of the truck for the fire," he said. "It was a good feeling to get those two people away from the fire, but that was all put in perspective when there was a guy we weren't able to help. Any kind of good feelings you have about yourself are deflated by that."

Roland and Tanner already have been recognized by their friends and family, they said.

"People have congratulated us, but I don't feel like a hero or anything special," Roland said. "We were just seconds way from having someone have to help us out of the truck. We just got out and did what we needed to do."

Tanner and Roland stayed at the scene for five hours to help Georgia State Patrol investigators piece together what had happened and wait with Tanner's truck, which had to be towed from the scene, Tanner said.

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