VIDEO: Off-Duty New York Trooper Pulls Man from Gas Station Fire
Despite being injured when an elderly man's car slammed into another car and a gas pump at the Hutchinson River Parkway station on Tuesday, causing two fires, an investigator from the New York State Police managed to pull the man from his vehicle and prevent the situation from becoming worse, police said.
Senior Investigator John Vescio, of Troop NYC, was gassing up his unmarked squad car on the southbound side of the parkway Mobil station shortly after 11 a.m. when he heard a car entering the service area at a high rate of speed, according to a state police press release.
Lohud.com reports Vescio turned just as a Toyota Camry slammed into an Acura on the other side of the pump,, and then into the pump itself. The pump fell on top of Vescio, who was injured as he was knocked to the ground.
Vescio "was able to crawl out from under the pump just as the front of the Toyota and the pump caught fire," a state police press release says. "He immediately went over to the 69-year-old operator of the Toyota, who was incoherent, and pulled him out of the vehicle to safety."
The man,who police later said was apparently in diabetic shock, was taken to the Westchester Medical Center, where his condition was not immediately available on Wednesday. Vescio and four other gas station patrons were injured; he and one other were taken to an unspecified hospital, where the were treated and released. The other three refused medical treatment.
