ABC 7 ChicagoIncredible footage has emerged of the moment a group of good Samaritans worked together on a busy highway to flip an overturned truck so the driver trapped inside could escape.
The video was taken from a helicopter flying above Interstate 88, near Oak Brook in Illinois.
The incident occurred when the Ford pickup truck blew out a tyre on the interstate, causing it to swerve out of control and overturn, landing on its roof and trapping the driver inside.
Around a dozen people quickly came to the aid of the driver. Fellow drivers and construction workers from a nearby site rushed over, and together managed to heave the truck onto its side so the driver could safely get out.
You can watch the footage here:
The driver was identified by Illinois State Police as 32-year-old Orlando Hernandez, ABC News reports.
Tom Meyers, a firefighter, was leaving his full-time firefighting job in Rosemont, Illinois, to his part-time firefighting job in Aurora Township when he drove past the scene.
Speaking to ABC 7 Chicago, he said: ‘Anytime you see something like that happen, you always… have that urge to help.’
Meyers arrived just after the truck had been flipped back on its side, and then helped Hernandez get out of the wreckage.
Tom said: ‘At that point, I knew we had to get the windshield and try to cut the seat belt.’
ABC 7 ChicagoMeyers and the other good Samaritans used tools from the nearby construction site to break the windshield of the truck and cut the seat belt that was keeping Hernandez inside.
The group were relieved the driver didn’t show any signs of serious injury, though they advised him to stay put and wait for the fire department to arrive.
As Meyers said: ‘He said, ‘I want to get out,’ I said we should probably wait for the fire department to show up, and that’s when he proceeded to jump out the window.’
ABC 7 ChicagoOther than Meyers, only one other good Samaritan was identified by police – 23-year-old Rodrigo Macias.
Shortly after Hernandez was rescued, firefighters and paramedics arrived on the scene. The 32-year-old driver was taken to hospital, and is said to have suffered non-life threatening injuries.
Hernandez’s truck suffered irreparable damage in the incident however, and police said it is currently unclear how fast he was driving when the tyre blew out.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.