Body cam video shows heroic officers, witness rescuing driver after fiery crash
By: Newly-released body camera video shows the efforts made by police officers to save a driver from being burned alive following a late night crash.
Just after midnight on Aug. 8, Officer Austin Williams was on his way home from his shift with the Lone Peak Police Department when he saw a speeding car fly past him. When Williams turned around, he soon saw the car crash into a tree and catch fire.
“That was the most heart-wrenching, was when he was screaming and looking at me, yelling at me to help him, and i just had to watch," Williams recalled Thursday. "I felt even me being in that much pain and suffering and wishing that I could do something, and looking to me as the person to save him and not be able to.”
But Williams didn’t have to feel helpless for long, as Officer Zach Goodale with the American Fork Police Department soon arrived on scene and had an idea to get the driver out of the vehicle.
“I knew that I keep a climbing rope in my car, and he was seen almost out of the window, so I figured if he's gonna pass out or something, I would rather get a rope around him so we can try to keep his head and face chest out of the burning car until we can figure something out,” Goodale explained.
The officers themselves had help, and are grateful for the assistance of a witness to the accident.
“I asked the officer, 'What can I do to help?,'" said Landon Waldvogel. "And I grabbed, he told me to grab some water. So I just ran inside and started to find a bucket, and just started assisting as much as I can.”
Walvogel made multiple trips into the home, constantly bringing out buckets of water..
“If I was in that position, I want as much help for anyone that I could get,” he said.
The family of the unidentified driver shared a statement, thanking those who saved him that night.
"Today is a good day and things are looking up," the wrote. "We are to the point where we can worry about the more trivial things surrounding the accident. We would like to communicate our thanks and gratitude directly to those individuals who have helped up to this point.”
The driver remains in the hospital with second-degree burns, but is expected to fully recover.
“When we actually removed him from the vehicle, it was a very elating feeling," said Williams. "It wasn't like a heroic, like, I'm so proud of myself moment. It was just so happy to see someone who was in so much pain to be free from that.”