AUBURN — Plow truck driver Mike Cohen figures he was lucky to catch a glimpse of the woman and her vehicle, stranded well off the road between Riverside Drive and the Androscoggin River Tuesday morning.

“I barely saw her there, looking in my mirror,” Cohen said. “And if you weren’t in a plow truck, up off of the ground, you couldn’t have seen her.”

Debra Jean Smith, 48 of Buckfield was especially lucky Cohen saw her. Her charcoal gray Ford Ranger was about 30 feet off the road, down a small hill and stuck between two trees. Her lights were off, making her all but invisible from the street above.

“I stopped my truck and ran down to her,” he said. “She was disoriented, still trying to drive. She had 911 on her phone, but she wasn’t sure of where she was. She thought she was in Durham, so that’s where the police would go if were looking for her — somewhere between Auburn and Freeport.”

Cohen’s bosses were applauding his quick reaction Tuesday morning, and for helping to save the woman and keeping her calm until rescue officials could arrive.

Cohen said it’s no big deal.

“It’s what I think anyone in Public Works would do,” Cohen said.

Cohen’s snow day territory driving Auburn’s plow truck 1 takes him up and down Goff Hill, before he heads out of town on Route 136, Riverside Drive to Durham. He turns around at the boat launch in Durham and plows back into town.

That’s where he was about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, when he noticed southbound tracks just past Jordan School Road, veering off the right side into the shoulder and then over-correcting into the northbound lane and disappearing into the trees on the other side.

“That’s a dangerous curve there, and you have to really watch what you’re doing when you’re in a plow,” he said. “I didn’t see anything on the side of the road, but I kept looking in my mirror as I went past.”

Cohen said the woman appeared to have hurt her back. He told her to stay put while he ran back to his truck to get his coat and his cellphone. He called his dispatch, who sent Auburn rescue out to meet him.

He stayed with the woman, wrapping her in his jacket until emergency personnel arrived. Then he continued on with his plow route.

Highway Supervisor Gary O’Connell said Cohen may downplay his actions, but it was a big deal.

“He’s an ‘aw-shucks’ kind of guy, and he doesn’t think he’s a hero,” O’Connell said. “But he did it right. He was the first one on the scene, and he worked as the incident commander, and when he was done, he went back to doing his job.”

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