SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO AM) - A pair of Good Samaritans say their instincts took over Sunday night in rescuing 10 people from a two-vehicle crash with one vehicle erupting into flames near Bath.
An off-duty South Dakota Highway Patrol trooper, Courtney Paul, was a passenger in a car with her sister when they passed a slow-moving Jeep with flashers on.
Paul says she watched in her side mirror as the Jeep burst into flames. She told her sister to turn around so they could help.
She ran across the highway and found Justin Dirksen of Bismarck, North Dakota, at the front driver's side door helping the gilrs get out. There were six people in the Jeep and four in the vehicle behind them.
Dirksen says the girls were shook up didn't seem to have major injuries. He says burns seemed to be on the light side but they all suffered bruising.
He says there were two people trapped in the front seat of the other vehicle. The driver had to be cut out with the jaws of life while Dirksen and Paul eventually got the passenger.
An individual in the second vehicle was airlifted to an Aberdeen hospital. Name and conditions have not been releases and the accident is still under investigation.
