(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- An Illinois Department of Transportation minuteman acted heroically overnight by rescuing two women from a burning car on the Kennedy Expressway.
“It feels good. This whole aspect of the job, I like helping people,” said IDOT minuteman Steve Newcomb.
IDOT's minutemen are essentially Emergency Traffic Patrol and Emergency Patrol Vehicle workers, who provide assistance to motorists when breakdowns or mishaps occur.
Newcomb, 47, had been outbound on the Kennedy Expressway when he noticed cars along the right shoulder in the inbound lanes around Addison.
Turns out, according to Illinois State Police, a car had slammed into the left median, spun out of control and caught on fire across two lanes of traffic.
At first, Newcomb thought everyone was out of the car, because there were people standing in the left shoulder.
But, just as he was about to use his rig to push the burning vehicle out from under the bridge, he noticed people inside the car as the flames grew larger and smoke filled the car.
“The woman was, like, laying down in the seat screaming, ‘Help me. My legs are broke. I can’t move.’ And she was, like, crying," he said.
Newcomb carried the driver to safety first and then the female passenger. He even went back to the trunk of their car and pulled out the thin mat covering the spare tire, so the women could sit on something other than expressway debris.
The Chicago Fire Department took both women to a hospital in serious, but non-life-threatening condition.
Newcomb has worked for IDOT for more than 20 years and has been a minuteman for nearly five years.
He said his rescue of the women this morning was his first ever life-saving incident.
“I’ve broken windows out to get people out of cars, but never in a dire situation where a car was on fire like this," Newcomb added.
"You don’t even realize the adrenaline going. I just pulled them out of the car and then, like, a half hour later I could feel my hands shaking a little bit.”
The Plainfield resident said he likes when he can help people in need whether it’s a situation like the one overnight or helping to change someone’s tire or get their broken-down vehicle off the expressway and out of harm’s way.
A photographer with WGN-TV was on his way to work and had spotted Newcomb making the rescues and videoed it from atop an expressway overpass.
Steve Newcomb has two adult children, including a 23-year old son and a soon-to-be 22 year old daughter. He said his daughter has already been doing a little bragging about her dad's heroism on Facebook.
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