Darren M. Smith

Darren M. Smith
Darren M. Smith

Golf professional Darren M. Smith, 31, of Vero Beach, Fla., saved a 17-year-old girl from burning after she was trapped inside an overturned sport utility vehicle following a nighttime highway accident March 4, 2017, in Vero Beach. As Smith approached the scene of the accident, he heard the girl screaming from inside the vehicle, which had flames on its undercarriage. Smith retrieved a golf club and used it to break out the vehicle’s front, passenger window. He then went to his stomach and crawled inside the smoke-filled vehicle. He grasped the girl’s feet and pulled her toward him and then alongside him until her feet were through the window opening. Another man arrived and fully removed her by her feet. Smith backed from the vehicle, which was shortly engulfed by flames. The girl was treated at the hospital for injuries she sustained; she was not burned. Smith suffered lacerations to his hands and arms, and he recovered.

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