Five People Heroically Pull Driver From Crashed, Burning Acura Sedan
These heroic folks managed to extract the driver from the burning Acura sedan before it was fully engulfed in flames.
While we tend to hear mostly negative news these days for obvious reasons (it gets our attention, it seems), there are plenty of good deeds that happen on a regular basis that don’t get quite as much press. That’s a real shame, because we oftentimes need reminders that there are good people out there in the world, willing to risk their own lives to help others in many cases. The latest example of this comes to us from Mississauga, Canada, where the driver of an Acura sedan had a medical episode and crashed, after which the car caught on fire. Luckily, five other citizens were happy to jump in and help rescue the driver, who had lost consciousness during the event.
The Ontario Provincial Police posted a video of the burning Acura on Twitter, showing us just how dire the situation really was. While the sedan was smoldering, the good Samaritans managed to get the rear driver’s side door open, as the driver’s side door was pretty mangled. This obviously made it difficult to extract the man from the car, but the group just kept plugging away, trying to break the window in a stellar example of teamwork.
Eventually, one of the men was able to break the window, which allowed them to open the door and rescue the driver. Shockingly, this happened just before the Acura became fully engulfed in flames, so their efforts very likely saved this man’s life. CBC News was able to talk to two of the folks that jumped in and helped – Ben Sykes and Fabricio Lauar – which sheds a little more light on exactly what went down here.
“I realized something was wrong, I saw the car was on fire,” Sykes said. You know there’s danger; you’re constantly evaluating that on top of trying to get this guy out. We had to get him out at that moment, a couple seconds [the vehicle] would’ve exploded. We were hoping the window would break, it was the only chance we had.” It was at that moment when a man in a dump truck tossed a hammer to them to help with those efforts.
A 36 year old man from Toronto who experienced a medical episode is alive because of the heroic efforts of five men who risked their lives as the vehicle began to burn with the driver still inside. They got the drivers door open to save the driver. You are my #HERO. July 4, ’22 pic.twitter.com/bwE43tMhn1
— OPP Highway Safety Division (@OPP_HSD) July 7, 2022
“I saw him throw it, it landed in the grass, and I ran over and grabbed it,” Sykes said. “I thought if we can get the door open, we’re in the home stretch. I didn’t really think about it; you sort of just jump out and help. In the back of my mind, I was thinking at some point I may have to peel out, but you’re just focused on the next thing.” “There was no hesitation, it was fight or flight,” Lauar said. “If that was you, you’d want someone to save you.”
Join the Honda-Tech forums now!
