4th CST Soldier is lauded for helping save the life of accident victim

Staff Sgt Phillip Michael Reynolds, a member of the Georgia Guard’s 4th Civil Support Team, is being lauded for his efforts that helped save the life of a truck driver involved in a spectacular interstate crash in June.

Reynolds said he relied on instinct and training June 19 when he saw the truck on the shoulder of the interstate engulfed in flames. He had just passed the congested merge between I-575 and 1-75 in Cobb County when he came upon the truck and the five-year Georgia National Guard veteran said he could see the arched body of its driver still inside the burning cab.

As countless commuters passed without stopping, Reynolds pulled off the road, opened his trunk, grabbed a fire extinguisher, and weaved his way across oncoming traffic toward the blazing truck. A trained firefighter and EMT since 1990, Reynolds said that when he reached the drive, he immediately recognized the telltale signs of a grand mal seizure and frantically worked to free the man from the cab.

Cutting away the shoulder harness, Reynolds pulled he driver from the burning truck moments before the tires of the truck began to explode from the searing heat.

Reynolds was joined by two pediatric technicians from Children's Health Care of Atlanta and an Air Force Reserve officer who had stopped at the scene. They moved the driver and themselves behind one of the stopped cars to protect themselves from flying debris of the multiple explosions.

As firefighters arrived on the scene and began extinguishing the fire engulfing the truck, Reynolds found the medical kit on the engine and began administering oxygen, IV fluids and medication to the unresponsive victim until other EMT and trained medical personnel arrived. The victim was taken to nearby Kennestone Hospital.

The incident on I-75 continues to attract interest and Reynolds has been the subject of several TV interviews. In spite of his heroic actions taken on the interstate, the 2½ year CST veteran remains hesitant to discuss it. He says he sees it as something anyone with his training and military experience would have done.

"I have training as an EMT. I was a firefighter in Chatsworth and was in Med Evac during active duty," says Reynolds. "Fortunately I knew what to do and I just did it."

Only a few weeks following this incident, Reynolds was returning home with his wife and young daughter from a family readiness party held at the CST when he chanced again upon the scene of a serious automobile accident and again rendered immediate medical assistance to a driver with a head injury.