OSU Employee Rescues Driver From Burning Truck

A Stillwater man was pulled from the cab of a burning truck, unhurt, after he fell unconscious, and coasted two blocks before crashing on the OSU Campus.

An OSU employee, Kyle Waters, rushed to help after seeing the truck through the window of a conference room at Gallagher-Iba. The rescue, he says, was just a way to lend a hand.

The dump truck driver lost consciousness behind the wheel, hit a car at Monroe and Hall of Fame, then his truck continued East, downhill, onto the practice field and across a lawn until it hit a second car and stopped against a transformer by Bennett Hall. The impact caused the driver to press the accelerator, spinning the tires and quickly setting the truck on fire.

Waters arrived within minutes of the crash, but the truck was already burning.

"Wheels were turning, white smoke became black smoke, black smoke became flames. I knew there was still someone in the car because the engine was accelerating."

He grabbed a landscape brick and broke through the drivers' window to pull him out.

Security camera footage shows the truck crash and catch fire and Waters rushing to the fire. The driver regained consciousness as he pulled him from the truck. Police, fire and an ambulance crew arrived soon and the driver is recovering.

Waters says as he was deciding what to do - his best friend, Tom Dreier, came to mind.

"Someone saw his car go off the side of the road, he had a heart attack, a guy gave him CPR. After that happens, you always stop to lend a hand, cause it saved his life."

That life saved helped spur him to save another. "I guess it was just one of those things where you've got to do what you can, and lend a hand, and you never know what can happen."