Rookie trooper’s T-shirt tourniquet helps save crash victim

GLOUCESTER, N.J. – New Jersey state police say an off-duty rookie trooper helped save a crash victim’s life by using a tourniquet fashioned out of a T-shirt and part of a tree branch.

Officials say Kenneth Minnes came upon a serious crash Monday on the Atlantic City Expressway in Gloucester Township. He helped other drivers move the seriously injured victims away from their smoking vehicle before it caught fire.

Minnes then tied his makeshift tourniquet around a victim’s heavily bleeding arm.

The victims were later flown to a hospital for treatment. Further details on their conditions were not disclosed.

Minnes graduated from the state police academy last year. The agency lauded him Friday for showing “the poise of a veteran.”