A Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant is credited with pulling a distressed woman out of harm’s way as she walked along busy Highway 321 near Exit 28.
1st Sergeant Steve Grinnell was dispatched to a welfare check of a woman who walked down the exit ramp to the edge of busy southbound traffic on Highway 321 four lane Monday afternoon (December 13). When he arrived on the scene the woman was walking northbound in the southbound lane just off the travel lane.
Sergeant Grinnell made contact with the woman who was walking a straight line from the shoulder of the road into the travel lane. Officer Grinnell activated his blue lights and sounded his horn to get the woman’s attention but she continued walking with her head down and not responding to the officer. The officer tried briefly to block traffic with his patrol car but the oncoming vehicles were not slowing down.
Sergeant Grinnell then pulled onto the shoulder of the road to the right of the woman, jumped from his vehicle and grabbed her by her jacket pulling her to safety just as an oncoming car approached. She pleaded with the officer, “please, please just let me do it”. She also said she had suffered four broken ribs about a week ago.
He transported the woman to a nearby church parking lot for safety and asked for Lincoln County EMS be dispatched to the scene to check the woman. No one was injured and the 51-year-old woman was transported to Atrium Health – Lincoln for evaluation.