Sheriff: Bystanders save deputy's life by pulling him from burning car

SPALDING COUNTY, Ga. (FOX 5 Atlanta) - A Spalding County Sheriff's deputy was recovering Sunday night from a serious crash and the sheriff said he might not have made it if not for some brave bystanders.

Those heroes helped pull Deputy John Taylor from the wreckage of his car shortly before that vehicle went up in flames.

"I truly think the two fellas that pulled him out of the vehicle...it was a blessing," said John Taylor Sr., the Deputy's father.

Two guardian angels that 22-year-old John Taylor desperately needed after he crashed into a tree on Hannahs Mill Road Saturday night.

Taylor told his father that he was driving down the road over a hill when another driver came over the line into his lane. Taylor swerved to avoid the car, smashing into a tree.

Taylor was trapped inside the car, but two drivers happened to see the crash: Maurice Murphy and Steve Abadie.

"I feel like God had us there for that time, I wasn't even going to go that way home," said Murphy.

Murphy joined Abadie who had arrived just seconds earlier.

"He was screaming in pain, and when I got to him, I looked up and I saw the battery was on fire," said Abadie.

The men called 911, but they soon realized they couldn't wait for police.

"You can kind of see the smoke getting worse, and I thought 'We might have to get him out of here,'" said Murphy.

With a shattered pelvis and a femur split in half, the men moved Taylor as carefully as possible.

"It felt like moments later there were flames in the seat he was in," said Murphy.

Taylor's father said he will have a long road to recovery ahead. He will need two to three more surgeries and could be on his feet within a few months.

But Taylor's father says that's nothing compared to what could have happened without the two Good Samaritans who stopped to help.

"I just, I could never repay them, they saved his life, and I thank them," said Taylor.