He believes the Corvette was speeding with a BMW M5 before the two came together and crashed
- An off-duty fireman saved a man trapped in a burning Chevrolet Corvette C8 after a crash.
- The sports car was allegedly speeding along with an F90 BMW M5 before the two got into an accident.
- Occupants of the BMW blamed the Corvette for spinning out and causing the crash.
New York City Fire Department (FDNY) Lieutenant Richard Cannon was driving home with his wife when two cars sped past him—an F90 M5 BMW and a blue C8 Chevrolet Corvette. Moments later Cannon would see the cars again but this time, they were in flames. The two vehicles had come together and crashed, and Cannon, despite being off-duty, stepped in to save a life.
The driver of the latest generation Corvette was unconscious but breathing. Smoke and flame were billowing from the rear of the damaged Chevrolet but Cannon continued his work. “I tried to get the victim out of the front seat, but that side of the car had damage to it and I couldn’t get the door open…,” the firefighter said. “The fire was continuing to grow. So I went to the passenger seat and reached over and unbuckled the victim.” From that position, he extracted the driver.
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The occupants of the M5 were unharmed and successfully exited their vehicle before it caught fire. The driver of the Corvette sustained a cut on his head and was transported to the hospital in stable condition. This incident occurred on the Belt Parkway, a road for reckless drivers in recent months. Reflecting on the danger of the situation and his response, Cannon contemplated the events afterward.
“I always talk about the job with my family,” Lt. Cannon said. “It’s everyday life, and it can happen at any time. I don’t think any of us is ever off-duty. If something happens, we’re all trained and supposed to react and do our job. … I would hope that any police officer, firefighter or EMT who saw that — even a civilian — would stop and do the same thing that I did.”
The occupants of the BMW believe that the Corvette driver was to blame for the whole thing. “It’s just a situation of a driver getting overconfident… that Corvette, I don’t know what he was thinking… he starts speeding… slips… next thing I know… airbag in my face, the car is in flames, that car is done (pointing at the BMW), beautiful, F90 (referring to the chassis code).
FDNY
“It was so bad that it took three people to get him (the Corvette driver) out,” said the driver. A passenger in the BMW mentioned the recent streak of reckless driving in the area. “This is the Belt Parkway, it’s not a race track of any sort. There’s a big trend going on social media right now, people like to do dumb things on the highway. I think it needs to be put to a stop. People need to drive safer.”
Will the NYPD do anything to stop it? Only time will tell.