FOX 4 NEWS reported that a Missouri school bus driver was driving children to their first day of school when he spotted a wreck and a truck on fire. Now he’s been hailed a hero after saving the teen driver from the inferno.
Cory Slyter, 19, was on his way to work when he skidded off the road and hit a tree. Moments later, bus driver Jordan Kirkland spotted the crash. Even as he had a bus full of students ready to start classes, he told the bus monitor he had to do something.
“As I’m running down the flames are just popping you could hear fuel lines starting to go off and by the time I’m down there I can feel the heat off of the truck and it’s just growing rapidly,” Kirkland said.
An older driver had already stopped to help, and had pulled Slyter from the truck, but Slyter had collapsed on top of him.
“Everything happened so fast it was kind of surreal,” Kirkland said.
Kirkland threw the teen over his shoulder, using his free hand to pull the good Samaritan to safety, as the truck burst into flames. The truck was unrecognizable after the fire.
“Seconds, seconds, if my reaction time had been any different or if that other man hadn’t been there, the outcome would have been completely different,” Kirkland said.
