WSDOT Celebrates Worker For Puyallup Car Fire Rescue

PUYALLUP, WA — The Washington State Department of transportation is hailing one of its employees as a hero for rescuing a woman from a burning vehicle in Puyallup last month.

Casey O'Connell is a WSDOT signal technician. As part of his job, he had been driving a signal truck toward Puyallup on State Route 512 early the morning of Nov. 10. But at around 3 a.m. as he pulled towards Canyon Road, he saw what WSDOT says is "worst thing he could imagine seeing": a head-on crash.

According to WSDOT, a driver crossed 512's meridian and collided head-on with a car going the other way. With no one else around, O'Connell says he knew he had to do something. He pulled off at the nearest exit, parked, and ran back to the scene. By the time he'd made it back, one of the cars was on fire.

Inside the burning car was a woman, who O'Connell says was conscious but who could not get out.

"I asked her if she could move,"O'Connell said. "She said she was hurt. I told her we had to get her out right now because the car was on fire. I pulled on the door and it wouldn't open, so I had to give it my all. She couldn't move, so I picked her up out of the car."

O'Connell pulled the woman to safety while another witness called 911. First responders arrived shortly after, and O'Connell was allowed to finish his work.

The woman suffered several broken bones, but because of O'Connell's quick thinking, she still has her life. WSDOT says they couldn't be more proud of O'Connell for going above and beyond the call of duty.

"While rescuing people on the highway isn't in Casey's job description, we aren't surprised that when faced with an emergency he didn't think twice about stepping up with heroic actions," writes WSDOT's Stefanie Randolph.

"It was definitely scary," O'Connell said. "I didn't even care about how hot it was. I had one thing on my mind, and that was to get her out."