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Officer pulls driver out of burning vehicle by Chris West Public Relations The MUSC Department of Public Safety bestowed its Life Saving Award to one of its officers on March 21. In an ironic misfortune, the day before the presentation the officer was treated for an accident almost identical to the one for which he was being recognized. Public Safety officer Stephen Giallombardo, left, was recently recognized and awarded the Life Saving Award by MUSC President Ray Greenberg, Public Safety Chief Charles Wiley and Vice President for Finance and Administration Bob Gallager. Officer Giallombardo rescued the driver of an overturned burning truck on crosstown highway of downtown Charleston. Public safety officer Stephen Giallombardo was in a training session at Harborview Tower around 3 a.m. on Feb. 24 when he and several fellow officers noticed a truck passing on the crosstown highway at a high rate of speed. “That was when we heard the screeching of the tires and saw him fish tail,” Giallombardo said. “We ran over to investigate and noticed that the truck had flipped on its side and was on fire near the gas tank.” The city police and fire departments were called and an EMS unit was dispatched to the scene. “But being a law enforcement agency, we were obligated to do something,” Giallombardo said.  It was then that officers on duty realized that the driver was still inside so Giallombardo climbed onto the truck to extract him. “Roll down the window and give me your hand,” he said to the young man at the wheel. The driver was conscious but appeared to be shaken-up. He rolled down the passenger-side window and Giallombardo pulled the man from the burning wreck. He was seen by EMS staff and found to be all right. Four days short of a month to the day of the accident, on March 20, officer Giallombardo was on his way home from work on I-26 around 8:15 a.m. “It was pretty nasty weather that morning on the way home when I was hit and spun into the wall,” he said. “I never saw her coming.”  Officer Giallombardo found himself stuck in his car, which had come to rest up against the middle divider. “I turned my radio on and notified the dispatcher that I had been involved in an accident and what my location was,” he said. City police units and an ambulance were dispatched to the scene, much like the accident a month previous. He was extracted from his car with the assistance of EMS personnel and taken to the MUSC trauma center in a neck brace and on a backboard. “I have a few bumps and bruises and I have had a headache for a few days. I was told to take some time off and just rest,” Giallombardo said. Luckily, he was well enough to attend his presentation ceremony the following day and was awarded the award by MUSC President Ray Greenburg.  This also marks the first time the award has ever been bestowed upon an officer in the Public Safety Department. Following a 20-year career in the Air Force, Giallombardo became a certified public safety officer after graduating from the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy in February of 1995. He began working with the joint public safety offices of the College of Charleston and MUSC. When the two offices decided to split in January of 1999, he decided to come to MUSC. “I just felt it was a better department and a better university to work for,” he said. Giallombardo adds the Life Saving Award to his Bike Patrol bar, the Purple Heart bar for injury in the line of duty, the Three Red bar for letters of commendation and the Star bar for five years of time served on the job.