Cuomo to the Rescue: N.Y. Governor Pulls Man From Wrecked Van

(Bloomberg) -- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo came to the rescue of a passenger trapped inside a wrecked van that had tipped over on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway Monday.

Cuomo had just left an event in Manhattan where he spoke to the Association for a Better New York about his goal to reduce traffic congestion and aid mass transit when he came across the accident scene, said his spokesman Rich Azzopardi, who wasn’t with the governor at the time. There were no police or emergency personnel present when the governor and his state police detail helped pull the man from the vehicle, which had careened out of control and was on its side resting on a guard rail separating the highway’s east and west bound roadways.

A video taken at the scene and posted on Twitter shows the governor reaching into the vehicle and helping to free the man. The governor had to cut the passenger out of his seatbelt before pulling him out of the wreck. Azzopardi said members of the governor’s press office were still trying to determine the identity of the person freed from the vehicle and the circumstances of the crash.

To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Goldman in New York at hgoldman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flynn McRoberts at fmcroberts1@bloomberg.net, Michael B. Marois, William Selway

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