Good Samaritan pulls Tampa cop out of burning cruiser

Monday, May 5, 2008

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Both cars caught on fire after the head-on crash.

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- A Tampa police officer was injured Monday morning when her patrol car was involved in a head-on crash.

Tampa police credit two men, including 41-year-old Archie Thomas, with helping save the officer after the crash.

According to the Tampa Police Department, officer Tara Edwards was traveling west on Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. in Tampa near 27th Avenue just after 7 a.m. when a Jeep Cherokee in the east-bound lane crossed the center lines and crashed into her car.

Thomas was on his way to work at a pallet supply store off I-4 in Tampa when he noticed a car driving erratically on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

"She veered right off into the cop," Thomas said.

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The officer's cruiser caught on fire during the crash. Thomas pulled Edwards out of the car seconds before it exploded.

His boss, Benedict Flahn, said he's not surprised by Thomas' actions.

"It's amazing to see how some people would just drive by," Flahn said. "And say I don't want anything to do with it."

"I think any man would had did it," Thomas said. "I just did something I thought would be right."

Edwards and the driver of the truck were both transported to Tampa General Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Edwards has a compound fracture of the wrist, a broken nose, a broken leg and a hairline fracture of the kneecap.

Tampa police called Archie Thomas a hero for pulling an officer out of a burning car.

Tampa police have charged the Jeep driver, 39-year-old Marti Sue Ottley, with DUI with serious injury, and driving with a suspended license with knowledge and careless driving.

Police say they will present Thomas with an award of merit for saving a police officer's life. Thomas' workplace also says they will honor him.

Police are still trying to contact the other man who helped out at the scene.