FOSTER, W.Va. — Hayden Johnson of Alum Creek, W.Va. said he didn’t event think twice when he heard a woman was trapped in a burning car, he simply jumped into action.
“Whenever something like that happens you don’t think, you just do. You can’t really hesitate because if you do, that’s when people get hurt and I didn’t want to wait around,” Johnson told MetroNews Tuesday, a day after he save a woman’s life.
An elderly woman lost control of her car on a rural road near Foster in Boone County and her vehicle rolled over into a creek bed and trapped her. The vehicle then burst into flames. A few hundred yards up the road, Hayden was just around a curve and on his way to a service call for his employer, Frontier Communications, when a woman pulled up and told him there had been an accident. Hayden hurried down the road and jumped out of his work van and ran down into the creek.
Already the engine was on fire and was about to spread into the passenger compartment.
“I had to cut the air bags out, and she was an elderly lady, so I had to reach down in the bottom of her car and grab her because she fell to the other side when she unbuckled. Her legs weren’t helping her because she was older,” he explained.
The woman was also trapped with her leg caught in the wreckage. Hayden quickly got her leg untangled and pulled her out of the burning vehicle.
“I reached down in there and pulled her out. I dragged her about 50 yards behind a woman’s house to get her away from there, but about 15 to 20 feet away the whole car was on fire,” he said.
Although terrified, Hayden said the victim kept her panic to a minimum and he was able to get her out of there without too much trouble.
“She was pretty panicked, but she worked with me and we got her leg unstuck and we got her out of the car as fast as we could, but it was by the Grace of God that I could get her out of the car,” he said.
Nearby a nine-year old boy named Jaxson saw the wreck and told his grandmother who called 9-1-1. Although first responders arrived quickly, they all agreed without the quick action of Hayden and Jackson, the outcome would have been far more grim. However, as it stands, it looks like the woman will have no lasting injuries.
“She called me this morning, but I haven’t had a chance to call her back, but she’s doing really good,” he said. “I don’t know what I was thinking, it was fight or flight at that moment. I just hurried up and helped her, which is what I’d want somebody else to do for me if I was unconscious in a car and was trapped and couldn’t get myself out.”
Boone County authorities said it appeared the woman will make a full recovery.