As strangers converged on a winter street, a life was saved

If Joey Hanley had left work at 2 p.m. when he usually gets off instead of closer to 3:30 p.m.

If two women hadn’t been walking along East Sixth Street, despite a temperature barely above 20 degrees.

If another man hadn’t pulled over at exactly the right time with exactly the right tool.

This story easily could have ended in horror.

Instead, it became a story of hope.

Back to Hanley, a 21-year-old Sioux Falls man, Army reservist and aspiring construction company owner who was heading to his east-side home after a day of work at a cardboard box manufacturing facility.

He was on his usual route – Interstate 229 to East 26th Street – and about halfway there, going 65 mph, when he did a double take.

“Usually, it’s the same thing every day – the mindless drive back home – but I was going under the bridge … and I saw someone up there,” he said.

“And thought at first it was the side of the railing you’re supposed to be on. I didn’t think much of it.”

Then he drove closer.

He thought it was a girl who’d somehow ended up playing on the wrong side of the railing.

Panic set in.

“I grabbed my phone and took the 10th Street exit, and I was on the phone with 911,” he said.

“I didn’t realize she was attempting to jump until I drove around.”

By the time he got to the Sixth Street overpass, two women had the girl – who turned out to be a young woman – barely by the hands.

“That’s when I realized it was a worse-case scenario,” Hanley said.

“Luckily, they were holding her by her fingertips through the grates of the fence.”

The women had been out walking — he didn’t know why — and stumbled upon her.

“When I got there, she was leaning with her arms extended, and they looked like the only reason she was still up,” Hanley said.

He tried to grab her coat through the railing, but his hands were too big. He realized climbing on the other side would be too risky.

And just as he was headed to his pickup to try a tow strap, another man happened to pull up.

“He came up with pliers, and started snipping at some of the wires between us and her,” Hanley said. “I never caught his name, which I feel really bad for. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have been able to secure her as fast as we did.”

They talked to her as much as possible, he said. They cut a hole large enough for Hanley to get his arm around the woman’s torso and hold her up, while others held the tow strap to keep her more secure.

At that point, police arrived and “got a good hold of her and brought her up and started clearing everyone out,” Hanley said.

“One of the officers came back and gave me my tow strap and took my information and shook my hand and said thank you.”

Half-dazed, he continued his drive home, called his girlfriend and for a while felt like he’d daydreamed the whole thing.

The cuts in his hand reminded him otherwise.

“Wow. That really happened,” he said.

Hanley shared his experience on social media as a reminder to others to ask for help before reaching that point.

“Being military, I have a lot of friends who suffer with depression,” he explained. “I’d much rather talk to you for 10, 15 minutes, an hour, two hours every couple days than attend your funeral once. It’s way better.”

A student in Hanley’s high school had taken his life, and “even though I didn’t know him personally, the whole school seemed off,” he continued. “It’s just a major thing. You don’t think you matter in that exact moment, but you don’t get to see the aftermath.”

Hanley figured that was the last he would see of the people with him on the overpass. The two women who’d walked by for what reason he never knew. The man with the pliers whose name he didn’t know. And the young woman whose story he’d glimpsed only a small part of.

He was wrong.

Less than two weeks later, he got a message from the woman he’d helped rescue.

“She thanked me for saving her life, and I told her I didn’t need thanks and it wasn’t any problem to me,” he said.

“And I made sure she knew that I’ll always be someone she can message or contact.”

She’s far from alone, he said, adding he thinks it’s a natural response when things seem too much to bear. And he’s not a hero for pulling over, either, Hanley said.

“We’re all human. We all have our problems day to day, and I like to think most people would do the exact same thing in my situation,” he said. “It just happened to be me that day.”

If you or someone you know needs help, it’s always just a phone call away. Call 211, and get started on a road to hope.