BUFFALO, N.Y. - On Monday morning at
about 1am, Niagara County Sheriff's
Deputy Allan Gerhardt, 36, was responding
to a call on Lake Road when he lost control
of his car.
"When he went off the roadway he struck,
he went sideways and struck a guardrail
and that guardrail went through the police
vehicle," said Niagara County Sheriff Jim
Voutour. "And in that process Deputy
Gerhardt unfortunately lost the bottom half
of his legs."
Deputies Sean Grapes and Jonathan
Andres both know Gerhardt well and were
the first on the scene. Then ran up to the
car to see their fellow deputy unconscious
and bleeding profusely. They cut off
Gerhardt's seat-belt and pulled him out of
the squad car.
"I ran back to my car to get my tourniquet
out of my (takes a long, deep breath) I ran
back to help Al and between john and I we
stopped the bleeding," said Deputy
Grapes.
"I took off my duty belt I didn't have my
tourniquet with me and I used my pant
under belt and I kind of made it in a
tourniquet and stopped the bleeding on
that leg," said Deputy Andres.
Gerhardt regained consciousness. The
deputies waited with their friend until the
ambulance arrived. The sheriff says if the
deputies weren't so quick to respond and
stop the bleeding, Gerhardt wouldn't have
made it. Gerhardt's wife describes the two
men as angels.
"They're my heroes," said Tina Gerhardt,
Deputy Gerhardt's wife. "His parents and
me, they're our heroes. He's here with us
today because of these guys."
"It's nothing that Al or any other cop
wouldn't have done for us," said Andres.
Gerhardt is in a medically induced coma at
Erie County Medical Center. He had surgery
Tuesday night to amputate his legs and is
recovering, but he's alive, still here, thanks
to these two men.
"They can brush it off that they could have
done it for anybody, but they did it for him
and I'm very thankful that he's here," said
Tina Gerhardt. "And we got a long road
ahead of us but we're tough, we'll make it."
The exact cause of the crash remains
under investigation.
