Heroic Alum Saves Police Officer’s Life
As a linebacker on TCNJ’s football team, it was Terence Nish’s job to run into the middle of the action and use his strength to make a difference in the game. On Oct. 21, the Class of 2006 grad raced into action at the scene of a police car crash and made a difference—a life-saving difference.
by Kevin Shea
As a four-year linebacker on the Lions football team, it was Terence Nish’s job to run into the middle of the action and use his strength to make a difference in the game.
On Oct. 21, 2008, the Class of 2006 grad raced into action at the scene of a police car crash and made a difference—a life-saving difference.
Terence teamed up with a group of good Samaritans on a curvy two-lane road in East Windsor to rescue a police officer whose car had crashed on the way to an emergency call and was on fire. One teammate that night was his girlfriend, soccer standout Shannon Scott ’06.
As flames spread dangerously close to the trapped officer’s legs, Terence was the team member who entered the smoky car and, with several heaves, pulled the officer to safety.
Almost three months after the rescue, Terence, a soft-spoken 26-year-old engineer who lives in South Brunswick, remains humble about his actions that night.
“When it happened, I didn’t realize the significance of it. I didn’t realize that it was a dire situation,” Terence said. “For me, it wasn’t a big deal.”
It was a big deal for East Windsor Officer Paul Wille, the crash victim. The police department has said Terence and his fellow rescuers likely saved the officer’s life, and stories of the rescue have been in several newspapers in the Mercer County area.
Terence’s employer, URS in Princeton, honored him recently with a Good Samaritan award during a recent banquet. Several other accolades could be on the way, as East Windsor officials say they plan to honor the rescuers. And one letter-to-the-editor in a newspaper nominated the group for the Carnegie Medal, which honors civilian heroism.
For Terence, it was not heroism, it was just reaction. Recalling the rescue, though, Terence details a scene right out of a Hollywood script.
Terence and Shannon, a fifth-grade teacher in the Bridgewater-Raritan school district in Somerset County, had just sat down for a dinner of leftovers at Shannon’s parents’ house when they heard a thunderous crash.
As Shannon dialed 911, Terence bolted out of the house and across the road. Seconds later, he and another young man who lived nearby arrived on the scene to see Wille trapped inside his mangled police car, wedged into a group of trees. The officer was not moving and the car was smoking. Terence yelled. The officer did not respond. The doors would not open.
As the officer came to moments later, Terence and the rescuers still could not open the doors. Shannon, now part of the rescue, then ran back to her house to grab a bat to break the window, but the rescuers managed to break windows with other makeshift objects.
One man broke the back windshield to let out smoke, and another broke the front, passenger-side window. Next up was Terence.
“I went in and grabbed the officer, but he was still stuck,” Terence said. The seatbelt was a problem too: Wille could not unlock it, so he gave Terence a knife from his belt and Terence cut the belt away. With Terence in the lead, holding the officer’s upper body, the men finally heaved Wille from the car as the flames spread into the driver area.
Terence ripped off his shirt and placed it under the officer’s head after the group laid him on the ground, then helped load Wille onto a stretcher with the ambulance crew.
Terence, who is 6 feet tall and still regularly works out, says his football skills were not a major factor that night. He believes anyone could have done what he and the others did.
“I’m sure there was some boost of adrenaline though,” he said.
Posted on January 14, 2009
