Sep 25, 2017 at 11:37 am | Print View

An Illinois man was killed Sunday morning on Interstate 80 in Iowa County as he was attempting to serve as a “good Samaritan” by helping the driver of an overturned semi-trailer truck.

The crash began when an eastbound semi-trailer truck driven by Destom M. Kidane, 37, of Tyler, Texas, overturned on I-80 southeast of Victor at 1:39 a.m. Sunday, according to the Iowa State Patrol.

As a car driven by Jareck Mieczyslaw, 47, of Burbank, Ill., approached the scene, a passenger in his car — Stanislow Gruszka, 43, of Plainfield, Ill. — got out and attempted to assist Kidane.

As Gruszka returned to his car to call 911, two other eastbound vehicles, driven by Gregg Robert Vigna, 56, of Plymouth, Mich., and Donald Pirkl, 62, of Victor, collided as they approached the original accident scene. One of those vehicles struck and killed Gruszka, according to the State Patrol.

Kidane and Vigna were also injured in the crash. They were taken to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

No good deed goes unpunished

I have worked enough accident scenes to understand that they are extremely hazardous; I've seen quite a few new ones occur as people rubberneck out of curiosity. If you're on foot at an accident scene, you should have your head on a non-stop swivel.

I have been on many accident scenes, many of them on large highways.

I have seen countless near-misses during them, and watched one idiot get hit by a car right in front of my patrol car on one of the busiest highways in Charlotte.

Very unfortunate. Working wrecks on big roads is easily one of my most unnerving responsibility, particularly after the fire trucks leave the scene to us.

People will run over while you are working an accident scene. Red lights seem to attract them. The other day we had two fire trucks trying to cross an intersection and help block off an accident scene on a four lane highway. Our ambulance was already there pulled off on the left side of the road lit up like Christmas eve. Some idiot doing 75+ went around a parked patrol, changed lanes and missed our ambulance by a couple of feet but never slowed down. You have to watch ever second.

NJ State trooper, was rear ended and killed while on the side of the road rendering aid to a motor vehicle accident. just a few months ago...

we were at a minor crash on a major highway here and as the fire officer i decided to leave a fire truck parked behind a trooper while they waited for a wrecker....wrecked car, trooper and one of my 50k lb. engines all parked in the breakdown lane. The trooper wanted all the fire apparatus gone and said he would be fine but I decided otherwise. Before I got back to the firehouse in my heavy rescue I heard my guys in the engine on the radio saying they had been hit. I had them close the highway stopping all traffic and we entered going the wrong way to get back up there without having to take the scenic route down an exit and then double back. When we arrived the trooper was at my door shaking my hand saying thank you repeatedly as our truck stopped. My guys were ok, we had to extricate the driver of the car that hit their truck at around 70mph....it moved that fire truck 6 feet when they hit....it would have killed that trooper.
I hate going up on the highway, it's too damn easy to get dead......and it happens all the damn time.

I can hear my Uncle's (Highway Patrolman) voice in my head saying over and over, "get off the highway, get off the highway. If you have a flat tire, drive on the rim, but get off the highway."

Earlier this year a local doctor was killed and a high school student lost part of a leg when they both stopped to help at an accident.