By Will Kane
The San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO — Keenia Williams saw the big rig tip over and burst into flames in her rearview mirror. Other drivers speeding south on Highway 101 in San Francisco early Wednesday saw the same thing. Williams, though, was the only one to stop.
“I just see the driver of the truck and oh, my God, I hop out, run, see the guy just sitting there,” Williams said. “He’s like standing between the fire. He passes out. And now I am like, ‘Oh, my God, oh, my God.’ ”
Between her and the rig were streams of diesel fuel that had spilled from the truck and now were in flames. The truck driver, 52-year-old Michael Finerty of Concord, collapsed feet from his burning rig. Williams realized that if no one did something, Finerty was sure to die.
“I put my arms under his arms and I dragged him all the way to my car,” said the 22-year-old San Francisco resident. “He wasn’t talking or anything. He was just laying there.”
Finerty had been hauling dry cement in two trailers when a sedan in front of him lost control around 5 a.m. on southbound 101 where it crosses over 16th Street. The sedan hit a guard rail, then another car.
Finerty swerved to try to avoid the wreck, but his truck tipped over and caught fire.
Williams was taking her 5-year-old daughter to school before heading to her job at a senior center when she saw the accident unfold in her rear-view mirror. Leaving her daughter in the back seat, she ran into the flames, skipped over the leaking diesel fuel, and dragged Finerty hundreds of feet to her car.
She splashed water on Finerty’s face until he regained consciousness, then hollered at firefighters who thought the trucker was still trapped in his flaming rig.
“You had the opportunity to see what was going on and see that driver was in a lot of danger and needed immediate assistance. ... Very impressive,” San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White told Williams at a news conference Wednesday. “You left your daughter and, at a great risk to yourself, you saved a man’s life.”
The chief added, “Seconds count in an accident like this, and without your bravery the situation would have been entirely different.”
Finerty was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries and released. He was the only person hurt in the crash, which forced the closure of southbound 101 for more than six hours as workers righted the overturned trailers, cleaned up the diesel fuel and checked the elevated structure for damage.
Hayes-White said she was trying to arrange a meeting between Finerty and Williams, who leaves on a long-planned vacation today.
“When he was going away in the ambulance, he kept asking for my name,” Williams said. “He was telling me he would never forget me, and for somebody to say that when they don’t even know me, wow.”
Williams said she hadn’t hesitated before racing to Finerty.
“I think I watch too much TV,” Williams said with a grin. “Most people kept going. I don’t know what made me stop, so I am glad I did. If that was me, I would want somebody to stop and save my life.”
Copyright 2011 San Francisco Chronicle
All Rights Reserved