LAKEWOOD, Colorado -- A Colorado State Patrol trooper rescued a teen in the path of tractor-trailer barreling down the highway Thursday.
Trooper Joshua Furman was headed home from work when he became stuck in traffic on westbound I-70 near Lakewood when he noticed 17-year-old Isabel Witter's vehicle was disabled in the middle of the road, according to KCNC-TV.
Furman stopped to check on her and pushed her vehicle off of the road. He then took the off ramp and continued east when he noticed something odd.
“I looked in my rear view mirror, and I saw smoke. A lady pulled up beside me and started honking and pointing backward," he told the news station. "So I notify dispatch of the smoke and asked them to send a fire truck. I got out of the car, and as I was going back everything became completely engulfed."
A semi-truck carrying lumber had slammed into traffic on the highway, causing a huge fire and multiple explosions. The tragic crash involving 28 vehicles left four people dead.
Furman attempted to go back to save people, but said that it was too hot to get close.
He worked to make sure people got away from the flames before he thought about what happened to the girl he had just pushed off of the highway.
"I had asked if anybody knew where she went because I hadn't seen her and nobody had seen her up to that point," he said.
Witter told the news station that she was feet from being part of the tragedy and saw the tractor-trailer race by her.
"If the trooper hadn't been two or three cars behind me, and I was stopped in that lane I might have been the first car that was hit," she said.
Furman found out Friday that Witter was okay, but she said she can't to be able to thank him herself.
