Good Samaritan Road Ranger Pulls Man From Burning Car After I-95 Wrong-Way Crash

MIAMI (CBS4) - A man is still in critical condition after being hit by a driver going the wrong way on the I-95 Express in Golden Glades.

CBS4 News talked with the Road Ranger who helped to pull him out of a burning car.

Larry Chery had just wrapped up his shift working as a Road Ranger. He was on his way home around 5 a.m. Tuesday, when something caught his eye off the shoulder.

"I happen to notice a vehicle turned upside down on fire," he said.

That's when he pulled over and ran closer. Other drivers had also stopped, he stopped the closest person he could get to.

"I just asked him a question. Did the people get out of the car, he said no, but then he said they fell from the overpass."

Once Chery heard that, he told CBS 4, he had to look for survivors.

"I said, hello, is anybody there and I seen the backseat had a curtain in the window, and I seen the curtain starting to flicker, so I figured that someone was in there so when I opened the backseat I saw a gentleman inside of the car like he'd been launched into the backseat."

Chery was able to pull the passenger out, with help from another Road Ranger who also showed up on the scene.

The thought occurred to him to ask if there was anyone else. That man motioned a one.

"I looked in the backseat I saw a child car seat. I flipped it, there's no child in the car seat. I looked in the front driver's seat and I saw another gentleman in the driver's seat but by that time the flames had already gotten to that side of the car and the driver side, but I could already see that he passed."

Right after he pulled the man out of the car, he said it became fully engulfed.

"For me that was like, if I can save one person, you know, to be with his children if he has children, I'm pretty sure he has a family."

Chery went back to work the next day, but he can't stop thinking about the man he helped.

"You know sometimes, maybe it feels like this is weird but it feels like it's like a connection."

He shared his story to send support to the victim and hopes to even meet him one day.

"I don't know if it's God or if somebody put in me a place, maybe just the right place and the right timing, I just want to know that you're okay, that's basically the message."

Florida Highway Patrol arrested the wrong-way driver, 38-year-old Irwin Rockwell, from Ochopee.

He's currently facing a charge of vehicular homicide and is being held without bond. Investigators are still waiting to get blood testing results; Rockwell may face new charges if there is evidence he was driving under the influence.