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You don't hear this every day -- citizen saves cop! This morning, the Salt Lake City Police Department gave an award to a man who helped rescue a bicycle officer after an accident in the Avenues.
When Karl Lins isn't teaching finance at the University of Utah, the professor likes to go for bike rides in the Avenues. In this story, he was not only in the right place at the right time, but he did the right thing as well.
It happened on Oct. 20. Lins says, "It was a nice, sunny afternoon, so I figured I'd go home, get on my bike and head up 11th Avenue to City Creek."
But just as Lins started his ride, he noticed something in the bike lane that didn't belong. "I looked to see what it was, and it was a bike wheel," he said.
An accident injured Officer Brad Burningham and mangled his bike. Apparently Burningham hit a garbage can that was in the bike lane, but no one knows why.
"I don't have any memory of why the crash occurred," Burningham said.
But Lins remembers the moment he found the officer. He said, "I immediately stopped, asked the person if they were all right, and he wasn't responding."
Burningham was in bad shape, lying on the side of the road unconscious with numerous facial injuries. Lins grabbed the officer's radio to call for help.
Salt Lake City police Detective Dennis McGowan said, "He began to manipulate the radio and started pressing buttons. This, in fact, is the emergency call button right here."
Lins pressed it, dispatchers responded, and they quickly sent paramedics.
"I was very lucky. If he hadn't been there as quickly as he had, it could have been much more severe," Burningham said.
So with cop and citizen in the same room, Lins was recognized as the citizen of the month today. "Thank you for honoring me in this fashion. I didn't do anything that anyone else wouldn't have done," he said.
Regardless, it's something Burningham won't forget. "I'm eternally grateful to this gentleman. He did a great thing," he said.
Burningham had to go to a doctor's appointment after this morning's celebration. He broke his jaw, suffered facial fractures and lost a couple a teeth in the accident, but he's doing well and expects to return to his bicycle patrols very soon.
E-mail: gkennedy@ksl.com
E-mail: aadams@ksl.com
