When he pulled a 2-ton SUV off a trapped motorist, a competitive weight lifter from Michigan made the most important lift in his life.
Ryan Belcher, 29, is a 350-pound power lift from Bellville, Michigan, who trains and works at least five days a week. When he heard a horrible sound outside, Belcher ran to the scene and in the middle of the road and saw two vehicles. A Jeep Cherokee was turned upside down and a man was pinned down, crying out for help. Four men tried to move the Jeep, Belcher said, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Half of his torso was outside of the vehicle and the other half was still underneath in the vehicle,” Belcher told local news.
“I had no other choice. It was either save a man or not believe in myself,” Belcher said. “So I just reached in did what I had to do.”
Belcher reached his forearms beneath a smashed out window and began to pull, moving the Jeep some three feet before he heard first responders tell him the man had been freed.
“I just jumped right in,” he said. “I seen a window that was broken out of the back of the vehicle and I knew if I can swing the vehicle in a certain direction I can free him from that pole. So, I just stuck my arms in and I don’t know I just grabbed it, lifted it up and started pushing and all I heard was that’s enough we can get him.”
Belcher thinks he was meant to be at the crash site that day.
“OK, this is where I need to be,” he recalled thinking to himself.
“This is all the power I’ve used, all the training I’ve been through, this is the time where it’s really going to pay off in a good way to help somebody.”
A few days after the collision, Belcher had the chance to visit the hospital and meet Montrell Tinsley, the man he helped.
Belcher said the meeting was very emotional for both men, as Tinsley kept thanking him for saving his life.
“I got emotional when he told me that I saved his life,” Belcher told Muscle & Fitness. “I said, ‘I know man, I’m just glad that you’re alive.’”
“When I walked into the hallway, there were like eight nurses, and they told me that if I hadn’t been able to move the vehicle, he would’ve died smashed against that pole. It immediately brought tears to my eyes.”
In an interview with news, Belcher said that Tinsley was in good spirits, though he has a long road of recovery ahead.
Tinsley told Belcher that once he was strong enough to exit the hospital, he wanted to start training alongside the man who saved his life.
“I’m humbled to be as strong as I am,” Belcher said on his Instagram page. “I’m thankful for the ability I’ve been given!”
