If I have to be pinned beneath an automobile, I think I would most like to have a bear within shouting distance. “Can you lift the back bumper, bear?” Failing that, my second choice is University of South Florida lineman Danous Estenor.
Estenor, a 6-foot-3, 295-pound offensive lineman, had stopped at the Bulls Den Cafe on the USF campus and was getting out of his car when he heard a woman screaming. Her husband, a tow truck driver, was pinned under the tire of a car he had been working on. The wife and two other men could not lift it to get him out.
“I just see his legs,” said Estenor, 21, a child of Haitian immigrants from Palm Beach. “The car is crushing him. He’s not moving. I’m thinking, ‘Oh, God, this guy is going to die.’ “
“I tried to lift the car, and when I first tried, it didn’t budge. I backed up. I don’t know. But I felt this energy come, and I lifted it. I don’t know how, but somebody pulled him from the car.”
But that’s not all:
That night he told his roommates, offensive tackles Jamar Bass and Damien Edwards. “Did this really just happen?” he asked. Teammates the next morning didn’t believe him. But one day after spring practice, coach Skip Holtz asked Estenor to stand in front of the team.
“I wanted to let you know that Danous is a real hero,” began the letter written by Jodi Rivera, manager of the Bulls Den Cafe, and read by Holtz. The letter closed with, “I know in my heart that without Danous there, the driver may not have survived the night. His quick thinking, willingness to help and strength saved that man’s life.”
“Unbelievable story,” Holtz said last week. “What a phenomenal story. Not all of us can lift a car. I’d be over there going (strains, laughing), ‘Um, call the ambulance.’ And Danous just walked away? I can totally see that. Just humble, quiet, keeps to himself.”
By the way, the Cadillac Seville that Estenor lifted weighs roughly 3,500 pounds. And how much did you say you could bench press in college?
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USF Bulls offensive lineman Danous Estenor lifts car to free trapped man [St. Petersburg Times]
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- trbowman - Jun 24, 2011 at 3:26 PM
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With all the negative stories coming out of CFB these days, it’s always nice to hear stories like this.
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- dank1204 - Jun 24, 2011 at 3:50 PM
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This is a great story, and a great feat by Estenor. However the magnitude is not truly portrayed. A standard Escalade weighs nearly 6,000 lbs and the ESV (like the suburban is even heavier).
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- Rick Chandler - Jun 24, 2011 at 4:06 PM
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My mistake. It was actually a Seville.
