A driver had to be airlifted from a Hamilton Township crash Thursday afternoon, after a dump truck overturned on his car. The sight of William Kovacs trapped in his car, surrounded by the heavy dirt that spilled from the truck, sent witnesses into rescue mode. “They just all got in there and started digging,” said Sally Solomon, who was heading east on the Black Horse Pike. A responder at the scene said it was one of the best rescues he has seen. “Absolutely incredible teamwork, including five citizens who were digging with their hands to reach the driver,” he said. “I’ve seen teamwork in the past but today was special.”Everyone from a local tow truck driver who tried to pull the car out to citizens, police, firefighters and emergency medical service workers jumped in to help. Just before the crash, Solomon said the car to her right went through the red light. That’s when she looked up and saw the westbound Mack dump truck going through the light as well. “Both passenger tires went off the ground and he just started to go down,” she said of the truck, driven by Brent Hannold Jr. Solomon, with her 5-year-old son in the back, swerved out of the way as the truck slid, landing on Kovacs’ Honda Civic. She quickly asked someone to help her son, and ran to the car. Solomon said she was able to get her arm through a hole in the windshield, stroking the man’s leg and telling him to hang on. Meanwhile, others started digging. For about 10 minutes they used only their hands, said another witness, who did not want to be identified. A nearby tow service then ran two shovels to the scene, with another person retrieving a small garden shovel from their car. The fire engines provided more shovels. Solomon said the car was smoking, but that the rescuers scooped some dirt over the engine. Kovacs, 60, of Mays Landing, was airlifted to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center's City Campus with serious injuries. Hannold, 37, of Vineland, was taken to the hospital for injuries that were not considered life-threatening. The area was closed for about five hours. Solomon’s husband, an Egg Harbor City police officer and Sept. 11 first-responder, died of cancer last month. She said she believes he was with her and her son. “Something told me to brake before I got to the light,” she said. “If I had been at that light, we would have been hit.” The area was closed for about five hours. Fire companies from Mays Landing, Mizpah, Weymouth and Laureldale assisted at the scene, along with New Jersey State Police, the Township of Hamilton Rescue Squad, AtlantiCare Paramedics, SouthSTAR and the state Department of Transportation. The crash remains under investigation.
