Good Samaritans push cars up hill in Hunter River during snowstorm

The first snowstorm of the year brought out the best in some people on P.E.I. this week.

Roads were so icy in Hunter River that cars were stuck on both sides of the hill on Route 2.

"They were just sitting there spinning," said Darlene Gallant, who came over the hill toward Charlottetown at about 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

"They weren't going anywhere."

That's when she saw two Armed Forces soldiers spring into action. Master-Cpl Samuel St. Pierre and Cpl. Ryan Conrod, from 4 Engineer Support Regiment, were on their way back to their training base at Slemon Park when they got caught in the traffic jam.

'Like the Energizer bunnies'

Gallant watched from the other lane as the soldiers "came out of nowhere" and started pushing the cars up the hill toward Kensington.

"It was amazing because they didn't stop. They were just like the Energizer bunnies once they got one car up, they come down and got another one. Those two guys went above and beyond."

St. Pierre said they were just doing their duty as soldiers. He said they asked a few other people to help push the cars up the hill. When they had about 10 people, he divided them into two groups one group would push the carshalf way up the hill, and the other group would push it the rest of the way.

'Right thing to do'

They managed to get about 25 cars up the hill in about half an hour, St. Pierre said.

"As soldiers, it's our job to help the local population. Being here on P.E.I. and seeing the snowstorm I think that was the right thing to do," he said.

"We weren't doing this to be recognized as heroes. We just did this to do our job, because as Armed Forces, anywhere we go, we do that because it's part of our job."

Their servicesmight be needed again on Friday, as more snow is in the forecast.

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With files from Laura Chapin