Zion police officers are being credited with rescuing a woman trapped inside a burning vehicle that crashed last week in the northern suburb.
Officers responded about 11:30 p.m. Oct. 11 and found a vehicle that had struck a light pole near the intersection of Sheridan Road and 29th Street, Zion police said in a statement.
Body camera video released Tuesday shows flames shooting out of the engine compartment as officers approach the vehicle.
Officer Steve Vines found the 41-year-old woman behind the wheel with heavy bleeding from her head, police said. She was lying across the front passenger seat and had an apparent leg injury.
Vines couldn’t open the driver’s side door because of damage, and he couldn’t punch out the window because of its tints, according to the statement.
The video shows officer Casey Taylor pulling up to the scene in a squad car and running out to the crash. Flames can be seen erupting out from underneath the hood of the vehicle.
“She’s trapped inside,” one of the officers says in the video.
“Oh my god, my leg,” the woman exclaims to officers as they try to pry the passenger side door open.
The officers then pull her out of the window and set her down on a grassy area just beyond the burning vehicle.
She was taken to Condell Medical Center in Libertyville for treatment, police said. No other injuries were reported.
The Zion Fire Department extinguished the flames, and an investigation into the collision was ongoing, police said.
