Patrol honoring man who saved two in crash

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- The Missouri State Highway Patrol will honor a Perryville man for saving two lives in a car crash that killed two other occupants of the car.

The patrol and the Perryville Volunteer Fire Department will give John G. Plunkett the Honorary Trooper Award at the quarterly meeting of the Perry County E-911 Emergency Management Agency on May 21.

According to the patrol, at about 8 a.m. on Jan. 24, Plunkett and his wife were driving on Route T in Perry County when they saw that a car had slid off the highway in a curve covered with ice. The car was pinned against a tree on the passenger side.

Plunkett called 911 on his cell phone and then looked to see if anyone was injured. Two people in the front seat, Connie S. Gibbar, 49, and her son, Timothy, 28, were unconscious. Timothy Gibbar's 3-year-old son, Seth, was in the back seat with his sister, Sarah, 22.

Sarah Gibbar passed the child to Plunkett through a broken rear window. While Plunkett carried him back to his wife in the truck, Sarah Gibbar was able to free herself and crawl to safety.

As Plunkett started back to the car, a fire started under the gas tank. Plunkett tried to remove Connie and Timothy Gibbar from the front seat and continued until the fire got so hot he was burned and forced to abandon the effort.

Patrol Cpl. Donald Larsen said Plunkett "heroically and unselfishly placed himself in extreme danger in his persistent efforts to rescue the Gibbar family members from their burning vehicle. Up against a spreading fire and high probability of an exploding gas tank, Mr. Plunkett valiantly continued his lifesaving attempts knowing full well he too could be seriously injured or killed."

Plunkett has been an over-the-road truck driver for Gilster-Mary Lee for the past 23 years. He was away from home Monday and unavailable for comment.

His wife, Marjorie, said that after her husband passed the child to her, she drove to a cluster of houses a short distance away searching for a fire extinguisher, but no one was awake at any of the houses. She kept Seth with her in the truck until she could see the fire was under control and the state police were on the scene.

"The little boy kept asking if he was going to see his daddy," she said tearfully.

The child was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, where his mother was at work, and was treated for a gash on his head.

Marjorie Plunkett said she and her husband live near the Gibbar family but did not know them before the accident; they have gotten to know each other since then. A couple of weeks after the accident, Seth's aunt and mother came to the Plunketts' home to bring them a plaque with Seth's picture on it in appreciation.

Larsen said Plunkett's actions were "extraordinarily brave, courageous and heroic."

His wife said, "That's the way he is."

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160