Hatzalah Makes Big Kiddush Hashem on I-690

Joseph Levin didn’t notice the truck in front of him Thursday morning until concrete and dust from the pedestrian bridge over Interstate 690 rained down on his car.

“It was like an explosion,” said Levin, a volunteer EMT from Brooklyn.

The truck in the right lane continued down the highway a bit. Levin pulled over.

In his rearview mirror he could only see dust.

Levin grabbed his medical bag, got out of his car and walked into the cloud. Inside, he found a sport utility vehicle against the guardrail, its engine running and smoking.

He reached into the car, shut off the engine and saw seven people in need.

“It was an unbelievable scene,” he said.

In the front, Alan Zimmer was complaining about the pain, Levin said. He had an open leg fracture, Levin said.

In the passenger seat was Jennifer Zimmer, unconscious and bleeding from the hand and leg.

Right smack between them sat a large chunk of concrete, Levin said.

Behind them were a small child and the child’s grandfather. In the third row were the grandmother and two more children.

The children were crying and the grandparents were asking: What happened? The adults were in shock.

Levin opened a side door and moved into the middle row of seats with the grandfather and child and began to work.

“For five to 10 minutes, it was just me and seven patients,” he said.

Levin is a property manager by profession and makes a trip to Buffalo twice a month. He was driving back to Brooklyn on Thursday when the lift on the back of a flatbed Mack truck smacked Crosswalk No. 2, a pedestrian bridge over I-690 west of the state fairgrounds.

Levin became known in news reports as an anonymous good Samaritan, the first on the scene to give medical aid.

In the SUV, he was stopping bleeding and calming everyone in the car.

“Everyone’s alive,” he told them.

At the window appeared Dr. Mike Loeb, a medical resident on his way home. He asked if he could help.

Levin asked if Loeb was a medical doctor, and on hearing that he was, Levin told him to grab some gloves from the medical bag and get to work.

Loeb worked on the father while Levin worked on the mother, who had regained consciousness.

The father was removed first, Levin said. Then several firefighters rolled the concrete chunk out of the car.

To get the mother out, the roof of the vehicle had to be cut off. Levin covered the woman to protect her from debris.

“That’s when I finally got out of the car, when they got the roof off,” he said.

Troopers took him to an air-conditioned car and gave him a bottle of water, he said. He left about 12:45 p.m. and continued on his drive.

Levin has been an EMT for 16 years with Hatzolah volunteer ambulance service in Brooklyn. On Sept. 11, 2001, he was on duty transporting victims of the World Trade Center to the hospital.

Levin was waiting for the next patient when the towers collapsed. He and another EMT were covered with debris and had to be dug out, he said.

Even after that experience, he said he has never been to anything like the crash Thursday.

“Everything is meant to be for a reason,” he said. “I believe I was there for a reason.”