A truck driver was rescued by a passing motorist after a fiery wreck involving two semi trucks that killed one.
Jessie Wilkerson was heading east on Interstate 30 near Garland, Texas on his way to a hunting trip when he saw the crash between two semi trucks burst into flames in front of him.
“All I could think of is those guys had to get out of that truck before it burned,” he said.
Wilkerson says he threw his car into park, kicked off his slip-on shoes, and ran up to the truck in his socks to do what he could to rescue the truck driver and his passenger.
“I didn’t know what I was going to see but I saw that the driver had his head out and both his arms and was grabbing the top of the cab,” Wilkerson said to NBC DFW. “The window was all busted out and the cab was smashed up and he was trying to get out.”
“I was standing on batteries and the fuel tank when I went up there to grab him and pull him off… I patted him on the shoulder and told him everything was going to be OK.”
Wilkerson was able to drag the driver to safety and get him behind a concrete barrier before rushing back to the truck in an attempt to rescue the passenger. But when he arrived, the person was already in bad shape.
“He was moaning and you could tell he was in a lot of pain,” Wilkerson said. “I’m trying to keep an eye on the flames and everything at the same time and they keep getting bigger,” Wilkerson said.
Soon after, first responders arrived and took over the situation. Although Wilkerson says he knows he did everything he could, he admits he doesn’t feel like a hero, because someone still lost their life.
“It all happened really fast. It seemed like it was taking a while but everything happened within a few minutes,” he said.
“I’m glad that I was there. It’s hard to feel super good about the situation when you know there’s a family out there that lost their loved one. I wish I could have done more but I did all I could do.”
The passenger in the burning truck passed away soon after the incident.