LSU WR Travin Dural rescues trapped woman from overturned vehicle Advocate staff photo by TRAVIS SPRADLING --Wide receiver D.J. Chark (82) congratulates wide receiver Travin Dural (83), after Dural's long touchdown reception from quarterback Brandon Harris, during LSU's 2015 National L-Club Spring Football Game, Saturday at Tiger Stadium. Ross Dellenger| [email protected] Aug. 12, 2015 Travin Dural’s grueling summer started even before LSU’s preseason camp began. The receiver rescued a woman who was trapped in her toppled SUV. “It was a different experience,” Dural said recently about the incident. The Tigers head into Week 2 of camp soon with Dural poised to be the team’s go-to receiver for a second straight season. The junior got a head start with some off-the-field heroics. Dural, while leaving his Breaux Bridge home, passed an overturned SUV on July 30 at about 10 p.m. A woman had swerved off Zin Zin Road, and her Nissan SUV landed upside down in a waterless ditch. Both front doors were jammed, with the driver’s side door crushed against the side wall of the 6-foot deep trench. She was hanging upside down from the driver’s seat incapable of reaching or opening the back doors, said Michael McQuade, a St. Martin Sheriff deputy who was one of the first on the scene. “She was trapped in the vehicle,” McQuade said. Dural, along with his cousin, Southern University receiver Randall Menard, pried open the rear passenger door and pulled out the woman from the vehicle, McQuade said. “We had to muscle it open,” Dural said. “He used his strength,” McQuade said. The woman was not injured. McQuade and other deputies arrived shortly after Dural’s heroics, and a few of them recognized Dural as the Tigers’ star wideout. Several of them began taking photos with a player who led LSU in receptions and yards last season. “They said, ‘You don’t know who that is?’” said McQuade, a self-proclaimed LSU fan who didn’t recognize Dural. Dural said he and Menard noticed the overturned vehicle after their car lights quickly flashed across the SUV. They drove to a stop sign and wheeled around. “It was a good thing we turned around. I’m glad we got a chance to help this lady out,” Dural said. “There were no cars on the street. I don’t know when the next time somebody was going to come by.” The woman was trapped in the car for about five minutes before Dural arrived on the scene, McQuade said. Zin Zin Road is a lightly traveled thoroughfare. It’s about 200 yards off a busier road, McQuade said. “It’s something you normally don’t see a young guy his age do,” McQuade said of Dural. “Normal people would ride by and call. They wouldn’t go above and beyond and stop and check. They actually got the person out of the vehicle.”
Miles Praises Dural's 'Heroic Act' Published: August 13, 2015, 04:45 PM (CT) by Michael Bonnette (@LSUBonnette), Sr. Assoc. Athletic Director/SID Miles Comments on Dural's Heroism BATON ROUGE – LSU coach Les Miles spent a portion of his post-practice media session praising junior wide receiver Travin Dural for his heroic act from July 30. That day, Dural and his cousin, Southern wide receiver Randall Menard, passed an overturned vehicle shortly after leaving their home in Breaux Bridge. A woman had swerved off of Zin Zin Road and her vehicle landed upside down in a waterless ditch. Both front doors on the vehicle were jammed and the driver’s side door was crushed against the wall of the ditch. Seeing the overturned vehicle, Dural and Menard turned around to see if they could help. Dural and Menard pried open the rear passenger door and pulled the woman out of the vehicle. “We had to muscle it open,” Dural told the Baton Rouge Advocate earlier this week when asked about the accident. “It was a good thing we turned around. I’m glad we got a chance to help this lady out. There were no cars on the street. I don’t know when the next time somebody was going to come by.” If it weren’t for Michael McQuade, a St. Martin’s Sheriff Deputy, no one at LSU would have ever known of Dural’s heroic effort. Dural never mentioned this incident or his actions to anyone at LSU. A few days after the incident, the LSU football office received a call from McQuade detailing what had happened. He told Ya’el Lofton, the administrative assistant for Miles, that Dural, “called 911 and stopped and actually gave assistance to this lady. He noticed she was trapped, so he did what he could to get her out of the vehicle. The lady in the car was okay and said how respectful and helpful Travin was to her.” Miles found out about what Dural did on the day the LSU football team reported to campus for preseason practice. At the first team meeting of the year, Miles told the team what Dural had done and the team responded with a huge ovation. “I introduced that story to our team when they arrived for two a days,” Miles said. “Travin is a Good Samaritan for what he did and how he acted. The woman ran into a ditch and couldn’t get out. Travin saw she was trapped and yanked on the door creating an opportunity for her to get out. “Travin left the scene once the officers arrived and never said anything to anyone here. Then we get a call from the deputy telling us what happened and how Travin responded. So many times in the season we point out a player’s bad play. We get consumed with the negativity that can surround any group of people, athletics or not. You lose sight so many times of the wonderful things people do for other people. Travin Dural, give him a round of applause and hats off to him. He’s a great kid and great person. He will be a good man and good father.”
Wasn't the first time........... Lsu's Sancho A Real Hero Off Football Field October 1, 1987|By Tim Povtak of The Sentinel Staff Hydrochloric acid was spilling out of the jackknifed truck like water from a ruptured fire hydrant. The fumes made breathing difficult. The smoke, blanketing everything like a mushroom cloud, made seeing impossible. The driver, with a broken pelvis, lay across the nearby culvert. A demolished car looked like an accordion, the engine pushed back into the front seat; the driver, bleeding profusely but unconscious, was pinned into the back seat. The whole scene that night, caused by a wreck on a darkened bayou backroad, looked like something from a horror movie -- only this one was real. Fortunately for everyone involved, it was Ron Sancho who happened past. Football stars are everywhere. Real heroes are hard to find. Sancho plays outside linebacker for LSU -- and may prove to be the key in Saturday's game against the Florida Gators -- but he has become better known for that night last spring. Sancho was rushing off with a teammate to New Orleans for a wedding reception when they saw the wreckage. Like he plays football -- by instinct and with fearless abandon -- he reacted quickly. With flames beginning to climb from under the car, Sancho pried out the driver, carrying him to safety. Then he rushed toward the truck, where spilling acid burned his shoes and toxic fumes burned his eyes. Unable to see the driver, Sancho only heard him moaning. Sancho closed his eyes and started wading through the darkness. He located the man by touch, lifted him over his shoulder and carried him back to the road, leaping the ditch with the trucker on his back. They collapsed together in a heap. ''I didn't really have time to think,'' Sancho said this week before practice. ''I said a quick prayer and thought, 'All I ever hear about now are athletes dying from drugs or being arrested.' Well, if I die here, at least they'll know I was trying to do some good.'' As the police arrived on the scene, Sancho and his friend left the wreck behind, eager to reach their intended destination. When he arrived, the bottoms of his shoes were gone. He was a mess. ''You have to understand, Cajun weddings aren't real formal. People show up in all kinds of dress, so it was no big deal,'' he said. ''Actually, we were hoping to keep it quiet.'' When he reported for spring practice the next day, then LSU Coach Bill Arnsparger kept asking why his eyes looked so red and sent him to the University medical center. The story got out. Both accident victims eventually recovered. After seeing a story in the Baton Rouge newspaper about it, they called to thank him. The trucker wanted him over for dinner. He declined, afraid of violating NCAA rules. Sancho last month was given the Andrew Carnegie Hero award, one of 20 medals given nationally by the Carnegie Institute. He was the only athlete. He went to Washington and met with Sen. John Glenn. He was cited by the State Legislature and the American Legion for his heriocs. ''I didn't think it was that big a deal,'' Sancho said. ''It was the only thing I could have done. I'm just glad the people came out of it okay. It just made football seem kind of small. ''Don't get me wrong, though. I play the game with all my might. Saturday, I'll give it 60 minutes of intensity. Florida will almost have to kill me to get past me. You won't beat me easily.''
