Three strangers who happened to be driving through Robertsdale on a Saturday morning found themselves in a desperate rescue attempt after coming upon a burning, overturned SUV on the Baldwin Beach Express.
One driver, headed south toward Orange Beach with his young son in the car, spotted smoke rising from the shoulder of the roadway. A second motorist, on his way home to Gulf Shores after visiting friends, saw the same plume of smoke moments later. A third man, from Orange Beach, arrived around the same time. All three converged on the wrecked SUV, which had flipped onto the shoulder of the northbound lane and caught fire after being struck by a car that police say had been traveling at an excessively high speed before rear-ending it.
Inside the SUV, the men found the driver, a 42-year-old visitor from Texas, lodged in the backseat and unconscious. With smoke intensifying and fears the vehicle could be fully engulfed at any moment, the group searched for a knife to help free him, working quickly while aware they were putting themselves at risk. A Robertsdale police lieutenant later credited the men as “heroes” for their efforts.
Emergency crews arrived and requested a medevac helicopter to fly the injured man to a trauma center, and the bystanders stepped back to let first responders take over. Despite the rescue effort, the man later died en route to South Baldwin Regional Medical Center in Foley.
The driver of the car that struck the SUV, a 44-year-old Foley man, remained at the scene afterward. Robertsdale police said the crash remained under investigation and was expected to go before a Baldwin County grand jury for consideration of possible charges.
Robertsdale authorities closed the northbound lane of the Baldwin Beach Express for much of the following day while investigators processed the crash scene. A makeshift roadside memorial was later placed near where the SUV came to rest.
The men who attempted the rescue said afterward that they were left second-guessing whether they could have done more, even though Robertsdale police publicly credited them for risking their own safety in an effort to save a stranger’s life on the Baldwin Beach Express, the divided highway connecting Robertsdale to the Gulf Coast beaches.