In this Dec.12, 2011 photo, West Valley City Police officer Kevin Peck wedged himself between an icy street and the undercarriage of a commuter bus, clutching hands with badly injured Aryann Smith.
Running into the face of chaos as so many first responders do, a Utah police officer is finding viral fame after he crawled underneath a bus to comfort a trapped woman.
West Valley City officer Kevin Peck was among the first on the scene of a horrific accident Monday that left 24-year-old Aryann Smith trapped under the wheels of a Utah Transit Authority bus. He saw only the woman’s white tennis shoe sticking out, so he made his way under the bus to check her pulse and breathing.
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And that’s when she grabbed hold. “She was very scared. She asked me not to leave. So I said I would just stay under there with her until we got her out,” Peck told the Deseret News. For more than 10 minutes, Peck stayed with the woman, his blue-gloved hand clutching hers, keeping her in good spirits as rescue crews used a hydraulic lift to hoist the bus.
Smith was taken to the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery. Peck noted that her only injury was a broken kneecap. The officer made it a point to visit Smith while she was recovering in the hospital, after realizing how much of an impact she made on him. He said he stood in “a daze” after Smith was successfully rescued, marveling at the scene that just transpired.
“At times, the job can become mundane. Then, every once in a while, something touches you more than the others. It reminds you why you became a police officer,” Peck told ABC News.