Ever heard of Steve Sliwa? He's a Grand Am sportscar racer, drives for SDS Performance Racing. I caught him driving one day on SPEEDChannel, can't even remember the event, but the name stuck in my mind. Sliwa's not exactly a common name, don'tcha know.

He became a hero on Friday. Seems he was out riding his bicycle when an elderly woman backed out of her driveway, lost her brakes and rammed into a high-voltage transformer. The transformer burst into flames, taking the car with it... and she was trapped inside, her arm caught under a fold-down center armrest.

You can guarantee that if there's one thing an experienced racer knows, it's how to get out of a burning car. Except Merry Banks, 81, wasn't a race driver; she was an elderly woman in a locked car.

And this is where Steve Sliwa became a hero. He ran to the car, banged on the window to get her to unlock the door, and saw she was stuck... and that he would have to get her out before the blazing car did something really bad, like explode. She hit the unlock button, he yanked the door open, got her seatbelt undone, and carried her out of the car.

A moment later, the car or the transformer exploded, filling the passenger compartment with flames.

Sometimes lives hinge on freak occurrences. Read the full story HERE.

Wingtip up to Steve from all of us here at The Pond!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:48 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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