Highway hero.

Douglas Crawford owns a farm in Ashford, Alabama. Crawford also drives a truck for Saia Motor Freight Lines, an occupation that put him into the middle of a serious accident scene last summer.

Crawford was driving his rig southbound on Interstate 85 in Crawford, Georgia, when he witnessed a collision between two 18-wheelers: an out-of-control Roadway truck crossed the median and crashed head-on into a Sexton Farms Trucking tractor-trailer driven by Herman Langford of Leesburg, Georgia. Both trucks burst into flames.

Parking his own truck, Crawford grabbed his fire extinguisher and ran to the scene. He could see that the cab of the Roadway truck had been almost totally destroyed by the fire, ruling out the possibility of a survivor, so he turned his attention to the Sexton Farms truck, where it was still possible to make a rescue.

Crawford partially extinguished the fire in the burning cab and found Langford, who was conscious but unable to move and drenched with diesel fuel. He managed to pull Langford from the burning truck, dragging him safely away just moments before the tractor exploded.

A nurse who had come on the scene administered first aid to Langford until paramedics arrived. He was then airlifted to an area hospital.