Auburn student honored for bravery

By Amy Weaver

Published: March 4, 2008

Daniel Brinson will probably never feel comfortable being regarded as a hero.

It’s a title the Auburn University sophomore earned after he and a friend encountered a multiple-vehicle car accident on their way to the beach last fall. With some of the cars on fire, the pair jumped out of their vehicle and dashed to the scene. Brinson said it was clear they were too late for some, but then they heard voices.

One belonged to a young girl, trapped in a car.

“There was no telling when the car was going to explode, but we had to get her out,” said Brinson, an agriculture business and economics major.

As the weeks and months have passes since then, it’s gotten easier for Brinson to talk about that day’s events and that young girl. He still remembers how they had to break her legs to free her from the wreck and how her passenger friend wasn’t as lucky. She died at the scene, he said.

“I saw that she was young and pretty,” Brinson said, “And I knew it was more important for her to live and go on than myself.”

Congressman Mike Rogers heard the heroic tale of Brinson and Terrell Webb and shared it with his fellow legislators on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives back in January. On Monday, he presented Brinson with a certificate of commendation at AU’s Samford Hall.

“Anytime we see extraordinary bravery, we should acknowledge it,” Rogers said.

Perhaps Brinson’s instincts as a former volunteer firefighter kicked in or it was just his inherent instinct to help others, but no matter what it was that drove him into that dangerous situation, he’s glad he happened to be there and could do what he did.

“You can’t pass burning cars and not stop,” he said. “You just can’t.”

Since then, Brinson has learned more about the young girl who’s life he saved, including how she had a young baby girl at home. She told the Brinson family how someone was looking out for her that September day and how she was meant to live her life for that little one.

News like that melts Brinson’s big heart and puts a big grin on his face.

The last time he talked to her, he said he learned that she had started rehabilitation and is even enrolled at Southern Union State Community College.