National Guard soldier pulls woman from burning car in Sterling

A member of the Massachusetts National Guard jumped into action to save a woman from a burning car on Sunday evening.

Ryan Leger, a 28-year-old specialist with the Massachusetts National Guard, had stopped to take photos with his wife at the Wachusett Reservoir after a drill weekend at Fort Devens when he witnessed a horrible car crash, Boston 25 News reported.

Around 5 p.m., Leger said a speeding car lost control, glanced off the guardrails, and crashed head-on into an SUV containing a family of five. A Sterling Police Department spokesperson told Boston.com the vehicle hit the guardrail three times before moving into the westbound lane and colliding head-on with the SUV.

The family survived, Boston 25 reported, but the driver of the speeding car was knocked out and her vehicle had caught fire.

“I signed up to protect civilians,” Leger told Boston 25. “I signed up to protect people in America and that’s the way it should be and if it was anyone else back at my unit at Fort Devens they would’ve done the same thing.”

Leger said he sprinted to the crushed vehicles and pulled the young woman from the burning car before flames could spread. He acted on instinct, he said, and is thankful no one was killed.

“If I wasn’t there within 20 seconds of getting her out the whole car would’ve been up in flames,” he told Boston 25.

A witness, Angel Ortega, told Boston 25, Leger didn’t hesitate to take action and quickly ran to the scene.

The police spokesperson said an investigation is underway and charges are pending, likely to be shared next week.

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