The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
FIERY CAR CRASH VICTIM GRATEFUL FOR HEROES WHO RESCUED HER,
Stalled vehicle burst into flames after crash on Connector.
She has a fractured rib and some minor burns, but Gail Snow knows she’s lucky to be alive after being pulled from her burning car, her daughter said Friday.
“She’s doing fine,” Shauntae Snow told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I’m just so glad she’s OK.”
After working her overnight shift at the Steak ‘n Shake on North Druid Hills Road, Gail Snow was driving to her College Park home when her car stalled shortly before 6 a.m. Thursday, her daughter said. The Buick had stalled once before, but this time she was on the Downtown Connector. Snow was trying to crank the car again when she was hit from behind by a tractor-trailer.
“All of the other cars were able to go around her, but the tractor-trailer didn’t,” her daughter said.
The driver of the tractor-trailer, Ronald Krugh, was cited for following too closely, Atlanta police said Friday. Krugh was not injured, but the front of his big rig was damaged, police said. It was towed away from the crash scene because it was leaking engine fluid.
The impact caused Snow’s car to ignite. Though she was trying to push her door open, she was trapped inside as the fire moved from the front of her car up toward the driver’s side. That’s when two strangers arrived to help, just in time to save Snow’s life.
An off-duty Brookhaven officer and a good Samaritan both ran to help pull Snow out of the burning car, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Officer Lois Strong had just finished her shift and Hector Cisneros, who cleans nightclubs, was on his way to work when both saw the flames and got out of their cars to help.
Cisneros and Strong pulled Snow out of the car. Seconds later, the Buick was fully engulfed, and Strong heard two explosions.
Snow’s car was destroyed, along with her purse and cellphone. But she was grateful for her heroes, even though she wasn’t able to tell them that at the time, her daughter said.
Snow was able to use someone’s phone to call her boyfriend before she was loaded into an ambulance and taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, but it was hard for her to get the words out. She remained in the hospital Friday, but is hoping to be released over the weekend, her daughter said.