Watch: Bedford cop rescues another officer trapped in car, seconds before large fire
In a dashboard video, a Bedford police car speeds along a rainy freeway, sirens blaring, windshield wipers whooshing. When it comes to a stop, another police car can be seen sitting in the road ahead, turned sideways into the median. There’s a red glow in the back window.
Officer Ruby Flores, the driver, was trapped inside, her door wedged shut.
The video, one of two shared by the police department, shows Officer Clayton Watkins, the responding officer, running out of his car on Wednesday night toward the vehicle that had crashed into the median on Highway 183. His bodycam video additionally captures him wrestling the door open, as several honks come from the car. He’s quickly able to get it open and Flores steps out to safety.
“Are you OK?” Watkins can be heard asking her.
“Yeah,” Flores says.
She then asks him, confused, “Is it on fire?”
Only seconds after she and Watkins step away to safety, smoke can be seen coming out of the window, and Watkins opens the trunk to allow it to funnel outside. He begins to use what looks like a fire extinguisher but it’s no match for the quickly growing flames. The car became engulfed in a blaze.
The Bedford Police Department posted the dashboard and bodycam videos, edited together into a single clip, on its social media channels on Thursday to celebrate the quick actions of Watkins.
Flores, police said, only suffered minor injuries in the crash. She was responding to a minor accident when she hit a pool of water on the highway, causing her to lose control and spin into the median, according to police.
Police said in a tweet that though the vehicle is a total loss, the important thing is Flores is OK.
“For that, we are incredibly thankful,” police said.
