A bad golf swing may have saved the life of an injured dirt biker in central New Jersey. Really.
The man was rescued after spending 17 hours trapped in the woods.
Dr. Vincent Romeo is a good golfer, usually hitting in the low 80s. On Thursday, though, he shanked a shot, clipping his ball way to the right of fairway 8 of New Jersey's Forsgate Country Club in Monroe. That one bad swing led to a hole-in-one for a dirt biker injured in the woods by the golf course. When Dr. Romeo went to his errant golf ball, he thought he heard something, but decided it was the wind.
"I am about ready to hit it again and I hear another cry and I realize … there was somebody," Romeo said.
Romeo then walked over to the woods and called out.
"I yell to the person, 'do you need help?' He yells back, 'I am on the track.'"
Thirty yards in the thick woods along a rarely used railroad track, 46-year-old Marc Franz had crashed his dirt bike. He could not move. Police say he had a broken leg, arm and ribs. He had spent the night in pain. Romeo could not get through the woods and called to the club staff.
Police and EMS came up the railroad track to the injured dirt biker.
"He was in poor condition; he had been there 17 hours and was happy to see us," said Lt. Marc Jimenez of the Monroe Police Department.
Franz was taken to University Hospital in New Brunswick where he is listed in fair condition. Romeo says a big storm hit right after he found the injured dirt biker. He believes the biker might have died from exposure if he was left another night. He said this was better than a hole-in-one.
"I trade a hole-in-one to save a life any day," Romeo said.
The dirt biker would probably gratefully agree.
A golf partner of Romeo's says when he went to get his ball, the wind changed direction carrying the cry for help. Moments before when it was blowing the other way they could not hear the man's groans.
Labels: Dirt Bike, Golf, Hole-in-one, New Jersey
# posted by
Brian Vanderhoff @ 9:23 AM
