New York firefighters rescued a man who was trapped in his sports car after it was pinned beneath a tractor-trailer Thursday.
The accident happened just after 10 a.m. along Interstate 787 in Watervliet, the Watervliet firefighters union said. When crews arrived, they found a nearly 23-ton tractor-trailer crushing a sports car, and the car's driver still trapped inside, WTEN-TV reports.
“It was a flour truck, so there was flour and smoke from the engine bay pouring into the car, so I’m choking, gasping for air," Jelani Reyes-Craig, the car's driver, told the TV station.
Firefighters deployed airbags to stabilize the vehicles, as well as to help lift the trailer, the union said. While crews began the vehicle extrication, Reyes Craig used his phone to record the rescue, an action that was bit unnerving to some firefighters given the severity of the crash.
“Survivability rate on this is zero. No way is this guy alive," Watervliet Fire Lt. Jim Strock told WTEN. "Then they said, ‘He’s talking.’ I’m like, no way. I go around the car and I yell in ‘Hey bud.’ He goes ‘Dude, can you take my picture? This is unbelievable.’ And I’m like, what?”
Reyes-Craig eventually was pulled from the wreckage, according to the firefighters union. He suffered minor injuries in the crash and was taken to the hospital for stitches.
“He walks out of the car, and he’s high-fiving us on the way to the hospital. Unbelievable. Unbelievable," Strock told WTEN.
Along with the Watervliet Fire Department, the Troy Fire Department's rescue squad, as well as officers from the Watervliet Police Department and New York State Police, also helped with the rescue.
"They went beyond the line of duty to do their job, and I’m really grateful for it," Reyes-Craig told WTEN.
