A heroic rescue of a driver from a burning vehicle in the south Cariboo was caught on video Thursday night, after two vehicles spun off the highway and one crashed into a telephone pole, causing it to burst into flames.
The crash happened around 8:30 p.m. on Highway 97 near Chasm Road, north of Clinton, B.C., when truck driver Patric Jansen stopped to help a driver who had spun off the highway. That’s when he noticed a fireball a short distance away.
“I ran to my truck, got a fire extinguisher, ran down the highway, and that’s when a bunch of other truck drivers and some bystanders came to help us.”
The team of rescuers were able to pull the driver out of the vehicle and stayed with him until ambulances arrived around 20 minutes later. The driver was taken to hospital at 100 Mile House, where he is currently recovering. He remains in stable condition.
Patric told Global News conditions on the highway at the time were extremely slippery.