'Other' Kelly Drive hero instantly went into rescue mode
Ten years ago, Alan O'Connor gave up lifeguarding in Wildwood after his wife gave him an ultimatum: her or the Jersey shore.
Ten years ago, Alan O'Connor gave up lifeguarding in Wildwood after his wife gave him an ultimatum: her or the Jersey shore.
O'Connor, a former competitive swimmer with the Irish national team, chose his lovely wife, Trish Flynn.
But when he saw rower Christopher DeFelice hauling a young man from the Schuylkill Thursday morning and saw another man bobbing helplessly in the murky water, he instantly went back into lifeguard mode.
"[Thursday] brought back happy memories," O'Connor said yesterday. "It's always nice when you have a rescue that ends in a positive way."
O'Connor, 38, was the heroic biker who helped rescue one of two men after a 21-year-old driver lost control of his 1994 Toyota Corolla on a curve on Kelly Drive. The car plunged into the river.
To prepare for a triathlon in North Jersey this spring, O'Connor started biking two weeks ago from his new home in Manayunk to the Art Museum, where he works as an accounting manager.
He was riding past what he thought was just a fender-bender until he saw the car and three men in the water.
"I heard someone say there's a second person and a second guy popped up after the car submerged," O'Connor said.
Moments later, O'Connor emptied his pockets and stripped down, leaving behind his jacket, sweater, shoes and bike straps before diving in.
But O'Connor, whose first job when he arrived in the states in 1997 was as a lifeguard in New Jersey, doesn't consider himself a hero.
"You don't think about that sort of stuff; you just go and do it," said the humble father of two daughters, ages 3 and 5. "There was no one else there. There was no way the other rescuer could have got to him."
O'Connor said the young victim was in a state of shock and appeared to have given up when he reached him. He put him in a lifeguard hold and pulled him back to safety.
After the gallant dive, O'Connor called his boss to inform him that he would be running late.
An officer at the scene cranked-up the heat, tossed the bike in the back of his cruiser and drove O'Connor home. He showered and then biked back to work.
At work, he found his email flooded with congratulatory messages.
"It was nice," O'Connor said of the emails. "I got the guy and bought him back home. The lifeguard training paid off."
"He is really surprised that everyone is making such a big deal about it," his wife said. "But I am just glad that everyone gets to see him the way that I see him."
