MORGANTON, N.C. — Surveillance video shows the moments a truck slammed into the gas pumps and flipped at a station in Morganton this weekend.
The store has several surveillance cameras and the video showed seconds after the accident, people were running towards the crash. The crash happened at Salem Express Store.
A father and son were trapped inside the truck after the wreck.
"I was afraid the truck was going to catch fire. I could smell gas everywhere. I just wanted to get them out of the truck," said witness Brian Smith.
Smith heard the accident at his home across the street and ran to help. Witnesses said there was smoke and a small fire coming from the engine.
The Highway Patrol said the father, Chris Burgess, had a seizure. Investigators said his 13-year-old son reached over and steered the truck away from oncoming traffic but went off the road to the right and into the parking lot.
Lenny Stewart works inside the store and saw on the video Monday the half dozen good Samaritans who stopped to help.
"(They were) willing to risk their own life to help somebody out. That's really good of them," Stewart said.
At one point, the video shows the 13-year-old being carried to safety.
Channel 9 asked Smith if he thought he and the others who helped were heroes.
"No. I'm just an everyday person wanting to help out," he said.
Friends of the driver said he is recovering at the hospital. The store manager estimates the damages here at around $20,000.
WSOC
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