Gut Instinct Well and Alive
In a time when religious differences are enough justification to fire-bomb the living snot out of someone who looks at you funny and laughs at the angle your hat is worn at, it’s refreshing to hear stories of good will. It is not often you hear of someone who will put his life at risk for another, let alone for the whole community to open its doors to the hero.
Modesty is a trait found in those who simply act to avert disaster. They don’t have the words to express how they acted.
Perhaps shied by the attention, [Darren Coogan] says only a few words: “Anybody would want to have done it. I just didn’t think and I did it, and I’d do it again.”
The hero is no more humble than the person who he rescued, who expresses his thrill at life with this simple remark:
“It’s good to be alive,” Bajwa, 28, says as fellow Sikhs walk up and ask of his recovery.
Neither man is famous or notable in anyway, other than that Satwinder Bajwa, a Sikh Canadian was saved by a complete strange, Darren Coogan. To each other, the two men were complete strangers, brought together by uncontrollable circumstances.
No one knew that a deer would come running out of the forest or that there would be someone there to save Bajwa when his mini van, after hitting that wayward deer, veered off, colliding with a telephone pole. No one nearby seemed to know what to do. The tow truck drivers in the vicinity were unable to determine how to get to Bajwa out of the mini-van.
They were armed with the tools, but in the end, a man with no tools to do the job, Coogan pulled Bajwa from the mini-van before the vehicle was encased in searing flames.
Coogan had been invited to the Sikh temple, where members of Bajwa’s community show their respect for a man who had risked his life to save that of a man he didn’t know.
If the circumstances had been different, Coogan and his father, who had accompanied his son, like his son would’ve never had the chance to talk to members of the Sikh community. Fate had a different plan in mind.
Sitting on the floor, Coogan’s father Thomas, 60, a native of Dublin, says, “I’m glad the Sikh community let us into their temple. It’s my first time.”
If it weren’t for the accident and rescue, Thomas adds, “I never would have interacted with the Sikh community like I am today. I hope they remain friends.”
