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Hero Credits His Leatherman After Saving Boy in Fatal Collision

December 12, 2015

“It’s like a habit. I put my belt on in the morning and my Leatherman’s on it. That’s really a lifesaver,” Trevor Hanna told the Maine press this week.

Hanna did not expect to be confronted with danger and tragedy when he took Route 27 in Sidney, Maine. Hanna, a 29-year-old welder, was first on the scene of a violent head-on collision between two pickup trucks – one of which was overturned and on fire. “It was hot. It was just like standing next to a bonfire,” Hanna recounted.

The pickup truck carrying 8-year-old Tyler Turner and his great-aunt Sherry, somehow had crossed the center line and collided with another pickup. The vehicle rolled, ending up on its roof in a roadside ditch.

When Hanna ran to the wreck, he found Tyler hanging upside down, stunned and still trapped in his seat within the burning truck. Hanna recalls talking Tyler through what was happening. “He was conscious the whole time,” Hanna said. “He didn’t know what was happening. I was telling him, ‘Don’t worry about it – we’re going to get you out.’”

Local media reported that the truck exploded just seconds after Hanna used his Leatherman to cut the seat belt and get the boy out. “I didn’t know it at the time, but he was seat-belted in,” Hanna said. “I tried to go under his arm and pull him out. I looked in the car and saw the seatbelt.”

Tyler was airlifted to Maine Medical Center, where his exact condition is still unknown. His great-aunt, did not survive the accident and was pronounced dead at the scene. “A lot happened in a very short period of time,” Hanna said. “It’s just very hard to deal with. I’m just worried about the little boy.”

Knife featured in image: Leatherman Wave

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