Mail carrier saves BG man trapped under truck

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Bud Dauterman talks
about his injuries from being pinned under his truck. (Photos: J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune)

Guardian angels come in all shapes and sizes. Some come in times of war. Some come in times of illness.

And, sometimes, they come carrying the mail.
That was the case for Bowling Green resident Bud Dauterman on Saturday.
“My dad says he was blessed. Blessed in Bowling Green,” said his son, Mike Dauterman.
“I just like the thought of you never know who’s going to be there for you. Delivering mail and saving
lives, I guess.”
Bud Dauterman, who lives in the 300 block of Sunrise Drive, was doing some work on his 1988 Chevy pickup
truck around 3 p.m. that day. The 72-year-old had the vehicle up on a scissors jack and was underneath
it applying grease.
Laying on his side, holding the grease gun, he suddenly heard a crunching noise. The top kickplate of the
jack broke off and the truck “went down faster than I can move.”
The vehicle, which had one of its tires off, came down on Dauterman, the axle pinning his left arm.
“He was completely under there, he barely had his feet dangling out,” said Mike Dauterman.
“It completely crushed him.”
“I couldn’t hardly breathe, so I was taking minute breaths,” said Dauterman.
Praying, Dauterman was able to move himself into a slightly better position to breathe, but his overall
situation had not improved. He attempted to cry for help, but the massive weight of the truck made
making a loud call almost impossible.
Still praying, Dauterman said “If it’s time to take me, it’s time to take me. Otherwise, you’re going to
have to send help.”
Just then, he heard a male voice say “Hey, what’re you singing under there?”
The voice belonged to postal worker Chad Kleman, on his rounds in the neighborhood. Kleman initially
mistook Dauterman’s muffled cries for song. However, as Dauterman explained the situation, Kleman went
into action.

The truck that Bud
Dauterman was trapped under along Sunrise Drive in Bowling Green.

“All I did was I attempted to utilize the jack as much as I could,” said Kleman, “because the top
kickplate of the jack was broken.” He maneuvered the jack and was eventually able to lift the vehicle
about four inches off of Dauterman. He also braced the vehicle on a tire rim.
“It was enough,” said Kleman. When Dauterman indicated that he was free, “I grabbed him by his feet and
pulled him out” and remained with him until paramedics arrived, “trying to keep him conscious.”
Kleman even reportedly called in to the Post Office later to tell them he’d be a little late on his
rounds due to the emergency.
An Army veteran who saw combat during the conflict in Bosnia, Kleman said “In between his breaths, I was
asking him, trying to figure out how bad he was.”
“It was pretty tough for me,” he said. “I felt like I sweated a whole gallon of water.”
“He saved my dad’s life,” said Mike Dauterman.
Bud Dauterman was later taken to Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center, Toledo, by air ambulance. Among his
injuries, he sustained a fractured shoulder blade, cracked spine and a lacerated kidney. He’s currently
back in Bowling Green recovering.
“Even the head surgeon told me … ‘it’s a miracle,’” said Mike Dauterman.
Bud Dauterman and Kleman have had a friendly relationship through the years.
“He’s always giving me peaches and water throughout the day, on hot days,” while on his rounds, said
Kleman. “He talks to me.”
“We’ve gotten a good rapport over the last five years that I’ve been his delivery man.”
Kleman seems to have been put right where he needed to be. Bud Dauterman said Kleman usually doesn’t make
his rounds at the time he did on Saturday.
“The mailman,” he said later, “(the Lord) sent him by at the right time.”
“Because if he hadn’t come by, and no one else had come by, I’d expire under there.”
“All I wished out of this, is I hope other people would do this for anybody, much less somebody they
know, a stranger,” said Kleman.
“I’m proud to be (a) letter carrier,” he wrote in his account of the incident on his Facebook page, “and
not only to carry my mail but to help my customers to the best of my abilities. As a veteran of the U.S.
Army, I’ve seen my share of men and women injured and I swore I would always do what I can as long as
I’m alive to help anyone in need.”

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