A group of good Samaritans rescued a driver in Minnesota after he crashed and became trapped in his car as the vehicle caught fire along I-94 Thursday.
The crash occurred around 6:30 p.m. near Snelling Avenue in St. Paul, when a Honda SUV left the road and struck a light pole before catching fire, the Minnesota Highway Patrol said.
Kadir Tolla, one of the good Samaritans who ran toward the flames to help, told FOX9 Minneapolis he was on his way to meet clients when he passed the burning wreckage.
“He was awake,” Tolla said of the driver. “He said: take me out, take me out, take me out.”
Tolla described how the flames were “hitting us in the face” as he and several others tried to get the man out. The driver’s side doors, however, were blocked by the guardrail and could not be fully opened.
Video captured by Tolla’s car cameras shows him grabbing a piece of plastic thrown onto the roadway and desperately trying to break the driver’s window, without success.
As flames continued to encroach on the trapped driver, a highway worker arrived and smashed the window, allowing good Samaritans to pull the man to safety.
Tolla called the situation the “scariest moment” of his life, telling the station he would never forget what happened that day.
“That could be me one day,” he told FOX9. “What would happen if I was in this situation and my life was in the hands of strangers I don’t even know.”
The driver was not seriously injured, but paramedics transported him to the regional hospital for a medical evaluation, police said.
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