Courage on the highway

“What do you give your lifesavers?”

Heinz Durstberger (62, left) from Linz has already met his two Styrian rescuers Viola Strametz-Hatenthaler (45) and Thomas Schaun (51).(Bild: zVg)

Loss of control in the middle of the Westautobahn - flying blind for ten kilometers, with no memory of the route or speed - brain haemorrhage! "I don't know why I didn't cause an accident," says Heinz Durstberger (62) from Linz, who met his guardian angels one year ago today, on October 10, 2023, near Laakirchen in Upper Austria.

The two Styrians Viola Strametz-Hatenthaler (45) and Thomas Schaun (51) from Weiz were driving behind the Linzer's Mazda convertible at around 2 p.m. and thought: "He's drunk." He was driving very slowly and then suddenly stopped on the highway.

"We knew we had to do something"
"We knew something was wrong and we had to help," said the two Styrians, who were traveling in Upper Austria on business, explaining why they decided to pull over. "A truck driver also stopped and blocked the road," Durstberger was later told. But the third guardian angel drove on again once the danger had been averted.

Together, the helpers pulled the apathetic Mazda driver out of the convertible. They also brought the car across the road onto the emergency lane and called the ambulance. At the hospital, an eight-millimeter hemorrhage in the brain was diagnosed; fortunately, surgery was not necessary.

Contact between rescuers and guardian angels remains
"What do you give your lifesavers?" Heinz Durstberger asked the Styrian duo. "Nothing, that was a matter of course," was the answer. In the meantime, the three of them have already met up again, and they are still in contact.

Convertible instead of patrol car in the police garage
By the way: Ansfelden highway police officers brought the stranded Mazda to the police station - and because they couldn't get the roof closed, they parked it in the garage instead of a patrol car until it was picked up again.