Off-Duty Doctor and Others Rescued Young Children From Fiery Car Crash

A group of good samaritans are being praised for saving the lives of four young children after a car accident killed their father and left the vehicle in flames.

On Tuesday, a 33-year-old man was driving with his four children, all under the age of four, in Lansing, Michigan when his car left the road and hit a bridge.

The man was killed but his children were all stuck inside the car as it ignited in flames. A group of witnesses, including an off-duty hospital doctor, quickly attempted to rescue the children from the vehicle.

Dr. Mohamed Farhat said he pulled over when he saw smoke coming from the car. He ran to the vehicle where other drivers had also pulled over to help. By the time he arrived, the children had already been pulled from the flames.

"I think everybody helped that day," Farhat told Lansing news station WLNS. "Starting from people who witnessed the car accident and were willing to park their cars on the side and help extricate the kids, to everybody else. EMS, police, people who are at Sparrow ready for these kids. Everybody participated."

Farhat, a critical care pediatric doctor, said he is used to seeing sick and injured children at work and he jumped into action instinctively.

"My role was really just to manage, to communicate with another nurse who was on scene, and quickly triage the kids," Farhat told the news station. "Figure out who was the sickest, and less sick, and less, and less."

The rescuers were able to place a cervical collar around one of the children, a young boy, and checked the vitals of all the children.

Farhat explained that it was cold outside and he worried about the children being exposed to the cold temperatures for too long.

"So kudos to those people who were holding the kiddos and covering them with jackets, or blankets, or whatever they had to keep the kids warm," he said.

All four children were transported to the hospital with serious injuries but are all expected to survive, Lansing Police said.

In July, another car crash on the same highway left a Michigan State University student stuck inside his vehicle.

Johnny Lindstrom, 25, was involved in a three-vehicle crash while driving on U.S. 127. Police believe a pickup truck was driving the wrong way down the highway when it collided head-on with Lindstrom and another vehicle. The pickup truck ignited in flames which eventually spread to Lindstom's vehicle, where he was trapped inside.

By the time a Michigan State Police trooper came across the fiery crash, the pickup truck was fully engulfed in flames. The trooper was able to pull the 22-year-old driver out of the pickup truck and police also rescued Lindstrom from his vehicle.

Lindstrom was airlifted to the hospital where he was treated for multiple broken bones, a bruised lung and a bruised lung.