CAMPBELLTON, N.B. – The locally stationed RCMP took great pleasure in presenting Grand Falls O/O Donald Cote with a certificate of appreciation for what they’re calling a truly heroic act.

On Sept. 28, Cote’s Freightliner collided with a Dodge Neon on Route 17 in Robinsonville, N.B. near Campbellton. Cote, who hauls for Sunbury Transport Ltd. based in Fredericton, saw the car had caught fire and its driver was still inside the vehicle.

“The door of the car was twisted and bent,” explains Jeff Foster, the investigating officer of the crash.

“The other driver had broken bones and wasn’t able to get out on his own. He (Cote) got the door open – he actually bent it. And he’s not an extraordinarily large man,” adds the police officer.

Foster says it’s not often that both drivers in a crash of that magnitude manage to escape alive – and it’s all thanks to Cote.

Not at fault for the collision, which left the driver of the passenger car to undergo surgery to repair broken legs, arms and ribs, Foster insists Cote is the reason the other driver is alive today.

“As far as we’re concerned, if (Cote) hadn’t been there that day, that gentleman would have died.”

Foster says certificates of appreciation aren’t doled out every day.

“We do it in the context of a passerby who enters a burning building.”

The presentation was made Feb. 8, at the District 9 office in Campbellton.