A road in Luzerne County reopened after being shut down for hours following a fiery crash near Hazleton Wednesday afternoon.
The westbound lanes of Route 924 were closed between Interstate 81 and Route 93.
The wreck sent three people to the hospital.
A man from Hazleton helped pull some of the victims to safety. "The car was just mangled. It's incomprehensible that somebody was even alive, for as bad as it was smashed," said Tim Deutsch of Hazleton. "The motor was shoved back through the windshield; the windshield was shoved right out of the car."
State police said the driver, Joel Fernandez, 19, of Hazleton, was speeding when he crashed on Route 924 and the car burst into flames.
Deutsch owns a tow truck company nearby. He got a call from his friend who saw the smoke. When the pair arrived, Deutsch put out the flames with a fire extinguisher and started pulling two of the victims from the car.
"The driver, his leg was messed up pretty bad," said Deutsch. "His face was all cut up. The rear passenger, he was in really bad shape. His face was crushed in, looked like he had compound fractures. We (dragged) him out of the car through the back window."
Deutsch found one of the passengers lying outside the car.
"He was in real bad shape. He was laying in the woods," added Deutsch. "He wasn't conscious."
The three men were flown to the hospital.
State police said Fernandez and his passengers, Ariel Perez and Gabriel Jimbnez, are all from Hazleton.
They are recovering at Lehigh Valley Hospital.
The westbound lanes of Route 924 were closed between Interstate 81 and Route 93.
The wreck sent three people to the hospital.
A man from Hazleton helped pull some of the victims to safety. "The car was just mangled. It's incomprehensible that somebody was even alive, for as bad as it was smashed," said Tim Deutsch of Hazleton. "The motor was shoved back through the windshield; the windshield was shoved right out of the car."
State police said the driver, Joel Fernandez, 19, of Hazleton, was speeding when he crashed on Route 924 and the car burst into flames.
Deutsch owns a tow truck company nearby. He got a call from his friend who saw the smoke. When the pair arrived, Deutsch put out the flames with a fire extinguisher and started pulling two of the victims from the car.
"The driver, his leg was messed up pretty bad," said Deutsch. "His face was all cut up. The rear passenger, he was in really bad shape. His face was crushed in, looked like he had compound fractures. We (dragged) him out of the car through the back window."
Deutsch found one of the passengers lying outside the car.
"He was in real bad shape. He was laying in the woods," added Deutsch. "He wasn't conscious."
The three men were flown to the hospital.
State police said Fernandez and his passengers, Ariel Perez and Gabriel Jimbnez, are all from Hazleton.
They are recovering at Lehigh Valley Hospital.
