Georgia high school football player saves 2 people in fiery car crash

A high school football player in Georgia jumped into action to help save two people in a wreckage while on his way to school in January, earning him recognition from the sheriff’s office.

Cayman Reynolds was on his way to Sonoraville High School (Ga.) when he came to a stop at a crash in which two cars were on fire and one was overturned. He told the local Fox 5 station that he pulled out his phone to have evidence to show his teacher while he was late when he noticed a group of people around the car trying to save a person trapped inside. (short video clip on Fox 5).

Reynolds said he pulled the door off the car and grabbed the legs of the person, who was jammed under the steering wheel. “His quad was torn in half, he’s jammed under the steering wheel, so I had to pull him out,” he said.

The group succeeded in getting the first man out of the car. They then rushed to the other vehicle, where a man was stuck in the seatbelt, trying to evacuate before the flames worsened.

“I see a wrench; his toolbox fell out. I broke a window, cleared the glass, but I was too big to get in the back window, so I asked the smaller lady, who was about 4-feet-11-inches, to squeeze in there and untie his seat belt and I said, ‘I’ll pull him out,'” Reynolds said to Fox 5.

The group saved the person. Reynolds then went to class.

According to the student, he usually takes a different route to school than this one. “I don’t know why at the last second I did, but God put it in my heart,” he said. That decision to change his route helped save the day.

Gordon County Sheriff Mitch Ralston awarded the group of people who helped — Reynolds, Sammie Roper, Lamar Turner, and Howard Pack — with a Citizen Service Award and certificates that noted they were “instrumental in saving lives” and for “displaying the highest qualities of courage and good citizenship.”