MEET MAPLEWOOD'S TURNPIKE HERO

Simon Byrne

Simon Byrne is a true hero. The 15-year-Maplewoodian and current Maplewood Village resident was not just in the right place at the right time when he helped rescue a truck driver of a burning vehicle on the New Jersey Turnpike Wednesday evening.

He was doing the right thing for the badly burned driver during a routine drive along the Turnpike that started out as a regular sightseeing trip to Washington D.C.

Byrne, an Australian native who runs a recruitment business, was entertaining his visiting sister and brother-in-law this week when the trio took a drive to the nation's capital.

On the drive back, the group watched in horror as two tractor-trailers crashed into a median and caught fire near East Brunswick and Exit 9. Byrne, who was driving, pulled over and ran to the scene with his sister, Jacqui Wilson, and her husband, Anthony Wilson, to help save the man whose leg had caught fire.




Mr. Wilson caught the incident on video above as the group aided the driver, Dale Miller of Claymont, Delaware, who is recovering at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston.

We sat down with Byrne and his relatives in his Maplewood home as they recounted the experience. Watch below: