Indianapolis, Indiana – According to the Indiana State Police, troopers and the Indianapolis Fire Department responded to a crash on I-74 near the 96-mile marker.
Upon arrival at the scene, they found a Jeep fully engulfed in flames and bystanders tending to a woman lying on the ground nearby.
According to an initial investigation, the driver drove off the road and hit the cable barrier in the median. Her vehicle caught fire. Two passersby saw the crash and stopped to help. The department believes there were more people who stopped to help, but they left before the police arrived.
While one man, an unnamed truck driver from Maryland, used a fire extinguisher to hold back the flames, the other entered the vehicle while it was on fire. The man, identified as Craig Gay, went in through the passenger door, cut the seatbelt off, and pulled the woman to safety. Both men then helped her until first responders arrived. “If it wasn’t for these two men we could be investigating a fatal crash this morning, their heroic actions and selfless response saved a life,” said Indiana State Police Sergeant Jon Caddell.
The woman was conscious and alert when she was transported to the hospital.
Gay was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.
