Woman recounts harrowing rescue of driver from fiery wreck seconds before explosion

A Newfoundland woman says she pulled a man covered in beer and blood from a car engulfed in flames Thursday night in Torbay, just seconds after the vehicle almost killed her.

Laura Lee Grouchy was driving home with her sister, Sarahlee Grouchy, around 11 p.m. NT when a car blew past them, going well over the 50 km/h limit on the town's main road.

She slammed on the brakes, she told CBC News on Friday, watching in horror as the car careened over the sidewalk and into a flagpole.

"He just started flipping," Grouchy said. The car finally came to rest on its passenger side, and the violent collision immediately sparked an inferno. Grouchy who said she was almost sure the driver was dead on impact flew out of her vehicle, screaming to see whether anybody was alive inside the burning car.

WATCH | Laura Lee Grouchy recorded this video from the scene:

Shocking video: Woman pulls beer-soaked man from flaming car

1 month ago

Duration 1:23

Laura Lee Grouchy says she was nearly killed in a head-on collision, then saved the other drivers life only minutes later. It happened in Torbay on Thursday night. Grouchy recorded video of the aftermath and recounted the shocking story in an interview on CBC Radio.

She began kicking in the windshield, wearing only a pair of Crocs, and pulling at the glass in a desperate attempt to get anyone inside to safety.

"I saw this guy's face. He was covered in blood," she recalls."I told them to try to crawl to me to get out. I was telling them, 'The car is going to blow up.'"

The driver lifted his hands and Grouchy grabbed them, hauling him out of the car through the windshield, the fire growing around them. Beer cans were rolling out of the hole in the glass along with his body as she dragged him out, she said.

Flames engulfed the wreck only seconds after he was safely on the ground.

Videos of the aftermath show police steadying a young man in handcuffs as he falls over. "Oh my god," he screams. "I could've hurt somebody."

Grouchy says the man was soaked in alcohol, and she could smell beer coming from the car.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary said Friday morning in a press release that a 30-year-old man from Port Blandfordhas been charged with impaired driving, refusal, assaulting a police officer, uttering threats to cause harm, and uttering threats to damage property.

Grouchy says she's still in shock, both from the rescue and from being just seconds away from certain death.

"It doesn't feel real," she says.

"I'm going to say two, not even threeseconds' [difference] he would have hit us head on.And he was absolutely flying.Like, highway speeds."

The experience has left her shaken and astounded at the damage the driver caused by his alleged impairment.

"It's just so senseless," she said. "It's totally avoidable. You don't have to drink and drive. It tears apart families.People lose loved ones.

"If ithad'vebeen literal seconds [later], the three of us would bedead. Me and my sister,and him."

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