‘Be the person to stop’

For Moorestown residents and best friends Pete Simpson, Hayden Lyons and Sean Famariss, Aug. 11 will be a date that the three will never forget.

The evening started out normal. Simpson, Lyons and Famariss were all hanging out because a mutual friend from Florida was on their way to visit for the weekend, so they all had plans to go down the shore. They were at Simpson’s house when they decided to go to Wawa. They were driving down Main Street when about 50-to-100-feet before they had to make a left turn into the parking lot, Lyons and Famariss saw what they described as a fiery ball fly over across Main Street.

“I was looking forward, about to turn into Wawa, when this fireball of a car is doing a barrel roll in the air and it was so quick to go by that I (was) like, ‘What just happened?” Lyons explained. “I looked at him (Famariss) and I was like, ‘Did you just see that?”

For a second Famariss had to make sure he wasn’t seeing things, he said. He thought that maybe it could have been lightning, or a fallen power line, but once they all saw the smoke, they stopped the car, jumped out and rushed to help.

“We didn’t really know what it was, but we knew that it was definitely something to help,” Famariss said.

The car was fully engulfed in flames when it was in the air, but by the time that it landed, most of the flames burned up, Famariss said. However, after it landed, the car was on fire right around the middle, but the female driver was able to pull herself out of the car door, unscathed. Simpson was first to get out, and he immediately called 9-1-1 and took the driver to safety across the street, who was the only person in the car. There were fluids everywhere and the car was about to go up in flames, so Lyons ran inside the nearest house to grab a fire extinguisher. Simpson and Famariss were helping the driver, who was borderline unconscious. Simpson had her on her side, he said, to keep her in a recovery position, and Famariss stayed on the phone with emergency personnel. Police and fire fighters responded quickly, once they were given the location of the accident, but thankfully the fire was put out before they arrived. All three young men didn’t have any thoughts when they initially saw the accident, other than they knew that they had to help. None of them were prepared for what they were about to see, Lyons said, and although they could have seen much worse, they’re glad that the driver made it out alive.

“It’s definitely a best-case scenario, if anything,” Simpson said.

“Once we realized that it actually had happened, we all knew what we were going to do,” Famariss said. “Stop when you can if you have a couple minutes to try to help somebody, because if you’re passing by, you want to be that one person who stops and helps.”

“You have to be the person to stop because if we didn’t stop, who knows what would’ve happened,” Lyons said. “Even if you can’t help out, just stopping gives people a peace of mind that there’s people out there who will stop to help them.”

Simpson, Lyons and Famariss have all known each other since second grade. Something that they used to love to do when they were young was build forts in the woods together, but now they like to do other outdoor things like fishing and boating and doing mechanical work on small engines. Simpson, a first responder on the beach patrol in Avalon, will be attending Rutgers University-New Brunswick in the fall to study finance and compete in track and cross country. Lyons will continue his athletic career as a rower at Fairfield University where he’ll also be studying finance, and Famariss will be attending the University of Delaware where he’ll be studying business. Starting a new chapter with college and meeting new people is what Simpson is looking forward to, as well as running.

“I’m also excited to meet new people,” Lyons said. “I’m excited to compete at the collegiate level. I think it’s very exciting (and) it’s definitely different from high school, so it’s going to be fun.”

Just to do different things is what Famariss is looking forward to, as well as ‘Get better at the stuff that I’ve already done, like fixing stuff and learning,’ he said.