Mike Wardrop was driving south on Interstate 295 in Falmouth on Friday, returning from an early-morning turkey hunt, when a pickup truck swerved into the path of the minivan in front of him, leading to a collision that sent the pickup tumbling.

“It happened so fast. Suddenly this pickup was spinning in the air,” said Wardrop, Maine’s resident agent in charge for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Before emergency crews arrive at the scene of a rollover accident in Falmouth, passers-by who had pulled over work to prevent the vehicle from tipping over and to aid the driver who was trapped in the truck. Cliff Schechtman/Executive Editor

Within seconds, several drivers had stopped to help, at one point bracing themselves against the pickup, which landed on its passenger side, to keep it from toppling over onto its already crushed roof. Wardrop said it was exhilarating to see so many strangers stopping to help.

“There’s a lot of bad things out there, but there’s a lot of good things, too,” Wardrop said. “There’s good people out there.”

Maine State Police Trooper Justin Cooley said that when he arrived at the scene, one of the people who stopped had already parked his vehicle in the passing lane to prevent traffic from hitting debris on the road and possibly complicating the accident scene. Another passer-by who stopped was a doctor who comforted the driver and kept him calm while they waited for rescue workers to arrive.

Wardrop, who was off duty and still wearing camouflage, climbed on top of the pickup to check the driver’s condition. He worked with the others to move the guardrail cables out of the way so rescue workers could get to the driver’s side door. He could not tell how badly hurt the driver was.

“You never know what you’re going to find when you come up to a scene like that,” he said.

Firefighters used blocks to stabilize the vehicles, then used extrication tools to cut off the pickup roof and get to the driver, Bruce Knox of Pittsfield.

Knox, 56, escaped with a cut to his head. He was able to walk on his own after being freed from the vehicle, Cooley said.

The accident occurred about 8 a.m. after Knox, driving a GMC pickup in the right travel lane, approached a 2004 Chevrolet minivan driven by Jonathan Powers, 27, of Clinton. Powers was headed southbound in the passing lane near mile marker 13 when he saw in his rear-view mirror Knox’s GMC pickup truck approaching quickly from behind.

As it passed the minivan, the pickup swerved into the passing lane, Cooley said.

Powers was unable to avoid the pickup, and the minivan collided with the driver’s side rear bumper of the truck, which sent it tumbling down the road and into the wire guardrail. The rollover crushed the truck’s roof.

Powers escaped serious injury but was experiencing pain and was taken to a hospital to be evaluated, as was Knox.

The crash remains under investigation but police expect to charge Knox with driving to endanger, Cooley said.

Wardrop said he was glad the driver was OK, and pleased with how people responded.

“It was very enlightening to see so many good Samaritans on the scene immediately.” He said it easily made up for not bagging a turkey that morning.

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