EDMONTON – A Good Samaritan who purposely drove his Hummer into another car to save four young pedestrians doesn’t need to worry about his insurance going up.

Darrell Krushelnicki of Taber was leaving the Bonnie Doon shopping mall parking lot last Friday, when he noticed a potentially dangerous situation. A car in the far lane was showing no signs of slowing down, even passing other vehicles which were stopped to let four children use the crosswalk at 84th Avenue.

“He was using his cell phone and you could tell, I mean, you could tell he did not know where he was at,” explains Krushelnicki.

“Those kids were going to be in danger for sure because he didn’t see the lights nor the kids whatsoever,” he adds, “so I just kind of got in front of him.”

Police aren’t laying charges against Krushelnicki for that. In fact, they’re calling his actions “valiant,” and will be recommending him for a Citizen’s Citation Award. A Facegroup group has even been started to commend the ‘Hummer Hero.’

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And when it comes to his insurance – despite having caused damage to his vehicle, Krushelnicki won’t be held liable for the incident, which his insurance company will cover.

On behalf of Krushlnicki’s insurance company, Intact, the Director of Communications, Rosa Nelson, gave Global Edmonton the following statement:

“At Intact Insurance, we believe that insurance is about people, not things. We appreciate that thanks to Darrell’s quick response, 4 children were unharmed last week while crossing a pedestrian crosswalk. Because of these actions, Darrell will not be charged with an at-fault accident and we will also waive his deductible.”

Troy Bourassa, the Director AMA claims, agrees and says AMA would likely do the same if this were their client.

“It’s an interesting scenario from an insurance perspective,” he admits. “A lot of people might look at it and say ‘well, insurance policies don’t cover intentional acts. But my read on this would be the intention of the driver was not to cause damage to his vehicle, it was to prevent a worse accident from occurring.”

Krushlnicki says he’s just glad he was there at the time, and was able to do something to prevent a tragedy. The man driving the other car, meanwhile, is facing a dangerous driving charge.

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With files from Jenna Bridges, Global News





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