It was a night like any other along Interstate 65, as truck driver Adam Phillips followed the same route he takes every day. Instead, though, Phillips found himself face-to-face with a terrible car accident and a driver who needed help.
“Right about the time I got around the front of my truck, I could hear him screaming,” Phillips said.
Anthony Ingle’s car had hit a slick spot, spun off the road and slammed into a bridge. Ingle was trapped inside, pinned to the dashboard, as his car caught fire.
“I just kept thinking, ‘I’ve gotta get this kid out of here before it kills him,'” Phillips said.
It took Phillips and several other truck drivers, armed with fire extinguishers and a pry bar, to get Ingle out before the car went completely up in flames.
“I jumped up, grabbed him by the arm and yanked him out of the car,” Phillips said.
Phillips also gave Ingle his jacket, covering him with it as emergency crews arrived. He got back in his truck and drove away, leaving the jacket behind.
A week later, Fox59 spoke to Ingle in his hospital bed. He was hoping to find the owner of the jacket to thank him for his life-saving efforts.
The two got a chance to meet Monday, with Ingle handing over the jacket and thanking Phillips in person.
“I wouldn’t be here right now (without him),” Ingle said.
Phillips hopes other drivers will think about putting an emergency kit and fire extinguisher in their own car, so that if you happen upon an accident you have the tools to help, too. He doesn’t consider himself a hero, just someone who stepped up when it was needed.
“He alive, that’s all I care about,” Phillips said.
Ingle is out of the hospital and in rehabilitation. He’s hoping to get back to work soon.
