FOXBORO --

Bill Belichick was returning from his son's lacrosse game in Greenwich, Conn., on July 22 and, in an instant, football didn't matter to the New England Patriots' head coach.

That may seem quite difficult to fathom for someone who has won the Super Bowl five times as a coach, and is considered a mastermind of the X's and O's in the football world. On this day, the great game of football came secondary.

He was driving North on Route 95 in Connecticut, just three miles south of the Rhode Island border at approximately 4:30 p.m. He was alone and likely thinking about training camp and the upcoming season when suddenly he was confronted with an accident.

"It looked bad," said Belichick. "You looked at the car, and where it was you wouldn't think anyone would walk out of that one."

What Belichick was looking at was a 1998 BMW 540I upside down in a ditch in the woods to the right side of the highway.

"I was by myself and it was clear that it was a significant accident," he said. "It wasn't like the car had a flat tire and was pulled over to the side. It was upside down and looked pretty bad."

He was about one minute behind the accident, and when he pulled over there were already a few people on scene to help the male driver and female passenger.

David Salisbury of Cranston, along with his wife and two daughters were returning from a girls' softball tournament when they saw the BMW swerve out of control, flip over several times and land in the ditch.

"My wife was yelling 'pull over, pull over," said Salisbury, who did that immediately. The BMW was about 100 feet off the road and on its roof when the group of good Samaritans began to pry the doors open to get to the people trapped inside.

According to the police report, the driver inadvertently drifted onto the rumble strip on the left side of the high-speed lane and attempted to steer the vehicle back onto the road. The driver lost control and swerved onto the right shoulder when the car rolled twice before coming to rest in heavy brush.

As the assisting motorists on scene pulled the passengers from the wreckage, Salisbury ran back to his car to get ice from a cooler. When he returned with the ice and gave it to the driver, who suffered head lacerations and was complaining of leg pain, Salisbury took a few steps back and saw Belichick.

"Hey, you're Bill Belichick," said Salisbury, who is a diehard Patriots fan. Even though the Cranston native recognized the coach, football wasn't on anyone's mind.

"No, not in a situation like that," said Belichick.

The coach asked Salisbury what had happened and the two quickly helped get the victims away from the vehicle and up to the road.

At this point, police and rescue workers were not at the scene. The male driver was conscious and walking, while the female passenger didn't appear to have any serious injuries. The man was bleeding from his head wounds and started to wobble.

"You could just tell [he was starting to lose consciousness]," said Belichick. "He had been hit in the head and needed to get off his feet."

One of the other good Samaritans had a truck and Belichick told the group that was carrying the man to place him down in the bed of the truck to avoid further trauma. Belichick held the towel of ice to the man's head until rescue crews arrived.

"Once we laid him down, he started going into shock," said Belichick. "That didn't surprise me, but at that time the medics arrived and they put him on a stretcher. It was handled as well as you can handle it by the police, EMTs and everyone.

Numerous attempts to contact the driver and passenger, both of whom are from Brockton, Mass., were unsuccessful.

When Belichick was recently asked about his good-Samaritan role, the first thing he wanted to know was if the people were okay.

"He couldn't have been a nicer guy," said Salisbury.

This isn't the first time Belichick has assisted someone on the highway, but don't think he'll be working for AAA anytime soon.

"I've pulled over a couple of times," he said. "But, that was the most serious looking accident that I've seen. Luckily, they walked out of it."

Luckily, people like Salisbury and Belichick were there to help.

jmcdonal@projo.com / (401) 277-7340