A truck driver was pulled from his burning rig by another trucker on Monday morning after crashing into his rescuers truck.
The accident happened on Monday, February 5th at approximately 6:50 a.m. in Pawnee County, Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says that the semi truck with an oversized load was parked on the shoulder of the Cimarron Turnpike portion of Highway 412 westbound while its driver, 34-year-old Patrick Lee Garret Jr., was in the sleeper berth on his cell phone, and that’s when the FedEx truck went off road for unknown reason and clipped the parked tractor trailer.
The force of the impact set the FedEx truck on fire, and Garrett jumped into action, pulling 50-year-old Fed Ex driver James Patrick Casey out of the fiery wreck, reported News on 6.
“He [Garrett] ran up and pulled the other driver out of the semi,” said Trooper Derek Sosbee, who responded to the scene of the crash.
“He [Casey] was trapped in there and it was on fire. He got him out and put him out and about that time is when we showed up.”
Casey was flown to a nearby hospital in critical condition, and Garrett was transported to the hospital for minor injuries and then released.
Both lanes of the Cimarron Turnpike were shut down for approximately 2 hours as crews worked to clear the wreck, but the incident has since been cleared.