BRADFORD COUNTY, Fla. — Greg Moore has been a truck driver for the last 16 years. He said he has seen a lot on the road but what he witnessed Wednesday while driving for Landstar was a first.
"I seen a vehicle come around the curve, and I still just looked like 'did this really just happen in front of me?'" said Moore.
Moore said he watched as a pickup truck crashed into a tree on State Road 100 in Bradford County just outside of Keystone Heights.
He said there was fire and smoke coming from underneath the car and he knew he had to act fast.
"As I get over there she said 'my foot is stuck' and I looked down, her foot was up beneath the brake pedal. I couldn't move it at first. Then I just said 'in Jesus name' and pulled it back and she got out," said Moore.
The driver was 74-year-old Annie Lee Smith.
Moore said Smith didn't say much after the crash, but she asked him to call her son.
He said that her arm was pretty banged up and her foot was bruised and swollen.
A witness posted pictures of the fiery crash on Facebook, crediting Moore as a lifesaver.
That witness, Jeffrey Barron, pulled up right after the crash. He's also a truck driver.
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"He never left her side, even when the ambulance got there. There were 2 paramedics in the ambulance, one stayed with the truck and he stayed there with the other paramedic, until the ambulance took her away," said Jeffrey Barron.
Barron said he didn't learn the name of the man he considered a hero until he radioed him after the fact.
As for Smith, her daughter Debbie Catledge said she is in the hospital with injuries to her arm and ribs.
She also said Smith is a grandmother of 9, and great grandmother to 9.
Catledge said she is loved dearly and if it wasn't for Moore and his heroic actions, her mother would have died. Catledge also said she believes the tie rod end snapped in her mom's truck.
Moore has been in contact with Smith's family, and said he looks forward to talking with Smith as soon as she is feeling better.
"I give all credit where it's due, to the Lord you know and I just thank him for me being right there to help this woman out," said Moore.
Cox Media Group
