COLUMBUS, Ohio — After crashing his truck into a pillar on the Interstate 270/71 interchange, a man was rescued from the fiery crash by a Columbus police officer.
Columbus Police Officer Gloria West is so new, she is still in training. She says it doesn't take a seasoned veteran or even a cop to know you should do whatever it takes to save someone.
With her hand still bandaged from second-degree burns, West explained how she jumped into action last Wednesday.
“My partner and I, we just kind of added ourselves to a run. It came in as an injury auto crash and it said the truck was on fire,” West explained.
She said they didn't know exactly where the truck was, but when they got close, they saw the flames.
“Our thought immediately was just get him out of there,” she said.
Without thinking twice, she ran to the passenger door and her partner ran to the driver side.
“I started screaming for him to reach for my hand. Once I felt something, I just yanked and he fell forward, which surprised me,” West said.
They were able to get the man out, but the truck was still burning.
“The truck was still popping and the flames were still going. I think a tire blew. That kind of threw us off,” West said.
She says she didn't even think about the fact that she was risking her life to save a stranger.
“I treated it like I would my family members. If my family members were in there, that's what I would want someone to do. I would want them to get them out any means necessary,” West said.
She humbly says she just did what any cop, or any person would have done in the same situation.
“I was just doing my job. I think not even as a police officer, as a human if you have the means to help someone, especially someone's life, you should absolutely do what it takes,” West said.