Safety and Security responded yesterday morning to a phone call from an undergraduate who discovered a male sitting in a running car in the College's student parking lot with a tube running from the exhaust pipe to the car's interior.
The man, who is 35 years old and is not a resident of the Upper Valley, was conscious and alert at the time he was rescued and brought to the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Hanover Police Sgt. Christopher O'Connor said. "As far as we know, he was in perfectly stable condition," he said.
The police would not release the subject's name at this time, O'Connor said. DHMC would not release any information about the subject without a name.
Jonathan Kenyon '97, who placed the call to Safety and Security, said he was parking his roommate's car in A-Lot when he noticed another car parked in front of him with its interior lights on.
"There was a guy sitting in [the car] who looked like he was asleep. I got out of my car and noticed his car was running. I looked carefully and saw a tube running into the back of his [hatchback] car. The tube was connected to his exhaust pipe," Kenyon said.
Kenyon said he was going to try to disconnect the tube, but "then decided since this guy was probably suicidal he might have a gun or there might even be foul play involved."
He then ran to his room in Morton Hall to call Safety and Security, Kenyon said.
"I didn't know about the specifics of the situation at hand," Kenyon said. "I felt it was not a situation I had been trained to deal [with] and therefore all that I did was seek help by calling Safety and Security as soon as I could."
College Proctor Bob McEwen said Safety and Security received a phone call at about 1:30 a.m. from an "undergraduate who said that he observed a person sitting in a vehicle in A-Lot with a hose connected to the exhaust tail pipe." McEwen said the vehicle was running and the hose was running into the vehicle.
Safety and Security immediately notified the Hanover Police Department as well as Hanover Rescue, McEwen said.
"We were ... called to the A-Lot on a report of an attempted suicide," O'Connor said. "When we got there we found that there was a male subject that was going to be transported to [DHMC]."
Kenyon is being praised for his quick decision and action in the incident.
"The undergraduate who reported this a quickly as he did was instrumental in saving the person's life," McEwen said. "Thank God he acted as quickly as he did and called. At least this person's life was saved as a result of his quick decision to call."
McEwen said he is writing a letter thanking Kenyon, and that a copy will sent to Kenyon's class dean.
"It was a very observant undergraduate who took the appropriate action," College Spokesman Alex Huppe said.
