BATTLE CREEK, Mich.—A car in Battle Creek, burst into flames after being rear-ended by another car at Dickman and Clark Road on Friday.
The man inside that car is alive and in the hospital tonight after being rescued by a man passing by the scene. Dennis Torrey is the man behind these courageous instincts to get out and try to save a man’s life. However, Torrey says he can’t get the images and sounds of the crash out of his head, and most of all he wants to reunite with the driver.
“I don’t know the man, but I have a feeling of bond with him. I don’t know why, but just this feeling that I need to check on him,” said Torrey.
Dennis Torrey returned to the scene of Friday night’s crash on Saturday afternoon, w here a man he didn’t know at all at the time is now someone he’s most concerned about.
All the remains are Torrey’s haunted images of the fiery crash, and burn marks in the road, along with scorched car parts left behind.
“He hollered when he first came through the window and said ‘help me! Help me!’” said Torrey.
At that exact moment Torrey grabbed the man’s hand, and pulled him from the vehicle.
“I had blood and black stuff on my hands,” said Torrey.
Even though he pulled the man out of the jeep, he wasn’t sure the driver was going to make it.
“What was left of his clothes were still smoldering, and flaming a little bite,” he said.
Torrey returned to the scene on Saturday, mostly because he can’t stop thinking about the man trapped inside the jeep.
“My wife called up there to the burn unit in Bronson, but they wouldn’t tell her anything other than that family was there, and to pray for the man,” he said.
Torrey doesn’t think of his actions as heroic, he actually wants to apologize to the driver instead.
“I would apologize for not getting him out quicker,” he said.
Torrey says because of the bond that was formed trying to save a human life, he hopes to reunite with the driver. Until then he’ll pass this intersection everyday on his way home, and he’ll see that fierce blaze.
“I don’t ever want to experience that again, I would do the same thing if I needed to. I’ll never forget,” he said.
The name of the driver has not be released, and Battle Creek Police say he is still in the hospital in critical condition. The driver of the SUV that hit the jeep suffered minor injuries, and the whole crash remains under investigation.
