ELMA, N.Y. (WKBW) — When temperatures drop in Western New York, it does not just feel cold. It becomes dangerous.
For Matt, who didn't want to share his last name, that danger became real on a recent night in Elma.
Matt said he had run out of gas, and when he reached for his phone to call for help, it was dead.
With temperatures hovering around negative nine degrees, he says there was no choice but to get out of his car and try to flag someone down.
"I had no other choice," Matt said. "It's minus nine degrees. I'm walking behind my truck saying, 'Please, please, I just need somebody. I need a phone.'"
Matt said that cars passed and no one stopped, until someone did.
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Lt. Mike Fontana of the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority Police Department saw Matt. He wasn't responding to a call and wasn't dispatched, according to the department. He simply saw someone who needed help.
"I either would've been dead or catching something that puts me on the doorstep of it," Matt said.
Lt. Fontana pulled over and stayed with him. With 16 years on the job, he says stepping in was second nature.
"We get the opportunity every day to provide some form of assistance," Fontana said. "Whether it's helping a victim or a person in need — we're there."
Matt reached out to the department to tell them what the moment meant to him.
"It shows a positive light on our department, it shows a positive light on our profession, and it shows a positive light on the good side of human nature, to look out for one another," Fontana said.
