A Delaware State Police trooper saved a driver from a burning truck just before the vehicle exploded Sunday.
Cpl. Brian Thomson used an ax to break a window of the unconscious man's truck in order to pull him to safety, according to The News Journal.
The crash began around 5 a.m. as the driver, identified as Michael B. Fitzpatrick, was driving north on Union Street approaching Coastal Highway near Milton when his truck left the road and drove across both sides of Delaware 1 onto the grounds of Brumley’s Family RV Park.
The truck struck large slices of logs and a massive rock toward the front of the campsite. The truck, which at one point went airborne, caught fire.
Within 5 minutes, the trooper arrived and found the driver unconscious and lying across the truck's front seat. He used his state police-issued ax to break the driver's side window to get into the truck.
Thomson was able to wake the driver and pull him from the burning truck. Less than 2 minutes later, the truck exploded, sending shrapnel everywhere.
"He would have died for sure if it wasn't for that officer," Ralph Brumley, owner of Brumley’s Family RV Park, told the newspaper. "hat officer deserves to be commended, deeply commended."
Fitzpatrick was later charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.
