Bystander who helped save trucker's life: It was 'just ... human nature'

By Madison Bennett | MLive

SOUTH HAVEN, MI - Jeff Hunter didn't see what he and two others did Monday as heroic.

"That's just the human nature of who we are. If there's somebody that needs help you're going to step in and do it," he said. 

Hunter, a pilot, was driving home to Gaylord on I-196 near South Haven early Monday morning when he saw a truck ablaze.

A tanker truck caught on fire around 3:10 a.m. after crashing on a ramp to I-196. Hunter, along with Chad Edington, of Illinois and Shawn Crittendon, whose hometown was released by police, all came upon the scene and helped pull the injured driver, identified as 45-year-old Michael Bennett of Benton Harbor, away from the fiery scene.

Hunter said Crittendon and Edington were stopped on the southbound side of the highway and he jumped the median to help. 

"Thank God we were all there because I don't think two of us could have done it," Hunter said.

Bennett was found next to the cab of his semi-truck, unable to move, before it became engulfed in flames, according to the Allegan County Sheriff's Office. He was treated at a hospital for minor injuries, police said.

"They saved his life," South Haven Area Emergency Services Chief Ronald Wise said Monday of the three truckers who stopped to help. "Thank heaven for bystanders, because they are what saved his life.

The truck was carrying around 8,000 gallons of gasoline and Wise said the intense flames melted it into a "bowl of aluminum."

"I don't think anybody is going to drive by that," Hunter said of seeing the truck engulfed in flames.

The fire was allowed to burn for several hours in order to burn off the gasoline and limit its release into the environment.

Allegan Emergency Management and the state Department of Environmental Quality were made aware of the situation and were working on clean-up.The sheriff's office said that work was still being done as of late afternoon Monday and the northbound exit ramp to Exit 26 remained closed.

The crash is currently under investigation but the sheriff's office said it believes speed was a factor.

This post originally appeared Nov. 21, 2016 on MLive.com.