Joshua McConnell was driving south on the Aurora Bridge, Thursday morning, on his way to a construction job, when he saw some commotion in the distance.
"I could tell it was pretty bad," he said, Saturday.
At a time when some people could have stayed back and spared themselves the horror of the collision between a coach bus and duck boat, McConnell and other drivers jumped right in.
"I knew people were going to need help. I didn't know entirely what I could do, but I know that I had to try," he said.
He first ran to the duck boat and tried to get the injured driver off the vehicle.
"He just looked at me and said 'no, not until all my people are off,'" McConnell recalled. "His first concern was the passengers."
McConnell helped guide some of the dazed and dizzy passengers into safer positions so they wouldn't fall.
Then he went to the motor coach.
"When I got on the bus that was a whole different level of scary. Horror," he said.
He helped a first-responder carry some medical equipment on board, but it quickly became apparent there wasn't much they could do to help the most gravely wounded.
"I was there when people were fading away, and that still goes through my head," said McConnell.
Four people died in the crash.
In the middle of such chaos, McConnell and other drivers offered reassurance that help was on the way.
"(It's) definitely something that will change me for a long time to come," he said.
