Penn Hills man helps rescue Illinois crash victims

Evan McKenzie of Penn Hills was on his way back from dinner near Chicago with some U.S. Navy buddies on Nov. 11 when they noticed an overturned, smoking car on a nearby exit ramp.

“You really don’t know what the situation is and how much time you have when you come across this kind of scenario,” said McKenzie, a 2024 Penn Hills High School graduate who is serving as a fireman apprentice in the Navy. “So I’d say it’s better to act and try to put your best effort into helping rather than do nothing and wait [for emergency services], because those few seconds could save somebody’s life.”

U.S. Navy/Brian T. Glunt

Electrician’s Mate Fireman Apprentice Evan McKenzie of Penn Hills (far left) responded to an overturned car Nov. 11 in North Chicago, Ill., with his colleagues (from left to right): Electrician’s Mate Fireman Apprentice Dillon Weaver of Semmes, Ala., Electrician’s Mate Fireman Apprentice David Oxner of Pembroke, Mass., and Gas Turbine Systems Technicial Fireman Trevor Young of Hamilton, Ohio.

That’s exactly what McKenzie, fireman Trevor Young and fireman apprentices David Oxner and Dillon Weaver did. They pushed the car onto its side and attempted to rescue its unconscious occupants as they waited for first responders to arrive.

The four sailors are enrolled as students at the Surface Warfare Engineering School Command in Great Lakes, Ill.

“Weaver was the one who first saw the car and told our driver to pull over,” Oxner said. “There were two other bystanders there who had also just stopped to help. So we pulled over, hopped out and noticed there were two occupants inside the upside-down vehicle. We tried to open the doors, but they were locked. We all got on the left side of the vehicle, and the six of us pushed the car onto its side so we could open the back trunk and try to get these people out.”

The car stopped smoking once it was pushed onto its side.

“Young climbed on top, the back door on the side was now open, so I held it open while he jumped in to check on the people,” McKenzie said. “By that time, the firefighters were on the way, and Young was still in the car when they arrived.”

Young attributed his Navy training to helping him respond to the situation.

“The Navy has trained me to take action,” Young said. “If you want to see something happen for the good, or if you just want to see change, you have to take action. There could be a day when we are in the same situation, where we are in that car. I would hope to expect that other people would help.”