Extraordinary bystanders have described their heroic efforts to rescue trapped motorists after a high-speed firey crash on Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Keni Vukici was driving northbound along the bridge when the Toyota Kluger flew past at high speed towards oncoming traffic.
“He cut me off doing about 110 km/h,” Mr Vukici told the Sydney Morning Herald. “After the impact it was just mayhem”.
Dashcam footage shows nearby drivers jumping into action and moving quickly to assess the situation of three impacted vehicles – and the driver trapped inside the flipped SUV with a smoking engine.
“It didn’t occur to me that the guy who cut me off was the one upside down,” Mr Vukici said.
He recalls two men trying to pull the 30-year-old out of the driver‘s side window while he ran around to the passenger’s side to check that no one else was there.
The bystanders then worked to remove a 53-year old woman unable to get out of the third car.
When the black SUV exploded into flames minutes later, bystanders quickly moved to carry the driver away from danger.
“We actually had to hold him down at one point,” he said. “He was yelling out ‘Get off me!’ then passing out again … It was insane.”
“I’m kind of used to panic situations like that,” Mr Vukici, a former bodyguard, told SMH.
Mr Vukici confirms early reports that an officer from the Transport Management Centre single-handedly pushed the Hiace van out of the way of the flames.
Police rescue later cut the door off the van and extracted that gentleman.
The SUV driver was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital where he remains in a serious but stable condition.
The driver of the Toyota Kluger, a man in his 30s, is alleged to have stolen the vehicle from the CBD while the car’s owner was changing its tyre.
NSW Police are waiting for the man to finish treatment befoxjmtzywre commencing formal interviews and no charges have been laid.
“Those people that stopped their cars and got out and helped, they’ve been extremely brave and that’s not the type of thing that just anybody does,” said Sydney City Police Area commander, Detective Superintendent Rohan Cramsie.
“A lot of people would have kept driving, or stopped in their cars and watched but those people have shown tremendous courage and we applaud them for that”.
Mr Vukici told reporters that his actions were “nothing special”, and said the driver deserved saving despite the allegations related to the crash.
