Tow truck driver credits coworker for saving his life during fiery OKC crash

By Jason Burger

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    OKLAHOMA CITY (KOCO) — A tow truck driver said he is lucky to be alive after an intense collision caused an explosion over the weekend.

Two employees from Puckett’s, a towing company in Oklahoma City, were on their way to a call early Sunday morning when one of them was hit by a suspect driver in a separate crash.

“I feel good. Not sore. Not hurting. Still kind of confused on what happened,” tow truck driver Corey Shaw said.

The driver who was suspected of being involved in another crash ran a stop sign and hit Shaw’s tow truck’s gas tank, causing an explosion.

“If it wasn’t for my coworker and God, I probably wouldn’t be here,” Shaw said.

His coworker, Mason Phillips, was following him in another tow truck on their way to a call in Oklahoma City.

“He rushed over there, opened my door and helped me out, and I asked him, ‘Man what happened?’ He says, ‘This truck came out of nowhere and hit you.’ ‘Where did he come from? I never saw his lights,'” Shaw said.

Just seconds after the collision at Southwest 44th Street and Rancho Drive, Phillips knew he didn’t have much time.

“I parked the truck as fast as I could and rushed over there and got him out and made sure he was OK—breathing, alive,” Phillips said.

The Oklahoma City Police Department said the suspect driver in a pickup that caused the crash was involved in another crash at Southwest 44th Street and Blackwelder Avenue, but the driver left the scene. The driver kept running stop signs, eventually slamming into Shaw’s tow truck.

“I went to grab the steering wheel to pull myself up to find out what happened, and I was just covered in flames and smoke, and all I saw in my truck…it was like I was in a tornado. I was just spinning,” Shaw said.

Phillips said the firefighters arrived on the scene very quickly.

“Probably three minutes, tops. They were right down the road. So, they were able to get there fast,” Phillips said.

But he knew he had to go through fire to save his friend.

“I think the only part that was not on fire was that passenger door. I was able to get my hand around that handle, and that was about it,” Phillips said.

The two people inside the pickup died at a hospital. Phillips and Shaw were back to work the next day with no injuries.

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