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  Scituate Man Saves Children after N.H. Crash Kills Parents

By Patriot Ledger
Patriot Ledger [Scituate MA]
May 31, 2006

http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2006/05/31/news/news05.txt

Two children sat inside a burning car and Garry Garland of Scituate knew he had to do something.

He ran to the side of the car and pushed the boy and girl out of the back seat to two bystanders. "I just reacted," Garland said today.

Garland didn't wait for praise at the scene of the horrific Memorial Day accident in Bow, N.H., that killed the children's parents.

A prominent victim of clergy sexual abuse, Garland didn't want the notoriety, even for an act that anyone would define as heroic.

"I didn't want to come forward," he said. "A lot of people thought what I did (in accusing former Monsignor Frederick Ryan of molesting him as a child) was wrong."

Garland, a construction worker, saw the Chevrolet Blazer carrying Paul McLaughlin, 31, Kerrie Marshall, 32, both of Haverhill, McLaughlin's daughter Kayla, 10 and Marshall's son Jeffrey Morse, 7, careen off the southbound lane of Route 93 onto the bank beside the highway.

"I ran down to the bank," he said. "Two people were standing to the right of the car. The car was on fire."

Nobody was moving while the children sat in the back seat, he said. "I said, 'Come on, let's get them out, this car is on fire,"' Garland said.

Marshall and McLaughlin were ejected and died. The children survived because of rescuers, police said.

"Some guy grabbed me and said I was a pretty heroic witness and took my name," he said. New Hampshire state police interviewed him yesterday, he said.

"I just hope someone would do that for my loved ones," he said.

 
 

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