Good Samaritans pull man from burning car on Toronto-area highway
CBC
A group of men are being hailed as heroes after they pulled a driver from a burning vehicle on a GTA highway this week — a harrowing rescue that was captured on video.
The driver, a 36-year-old man from Toronto, experienced a "medical episode" while on the QEW near Cawthra Road on Monday, Ontario Provincial Police said.
"[He] 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 driver's door open to save the driver," the OPP tweeted.
The video shows a white sedan travelling down the highway with white smoke pouring from it. The vehicle then crashed, and thick black smoke began billowing from its right side.
Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said witnesses saw the vehicle veer right and then off to the left and into the guardrail before coming to a rest.
The vehicle was sideways on a grassy median when witnesses pulled up.
"They knew the driver was still in the vehicle [but] they didn't know the circumstances of why the vehicle lost control, but the driver was not getting out of the vehicle," Schmidt told CBC News.
"Within seconds they saw smoke [and] within a few more seconds they saw flames."
Several other vehicles stopped and the Good Samaritans sprung into action.
"Heroes jumped out and began trying to get the driver out of the vehicle who was unresponsive," Schmidt said.
Several of the men tried to smash the driver's side window while encouraging the driver to get out. One of the men used a hammer to break the glass.
The group was eventually able to pry open the driver's door and they pulled him from the car, which quickly became entirely engulfed in flames.
"This is an absolute story of heroism," Schmidt said.