Northbound lanes reopen after tractor-trailer driver Harris Co. Pct. 8 co-pilots from fiery crash on East Beltway

PASADENA, Texas (KTRK) – A Harris County sheriff’s deputy has been released from the hospital and is recovering at home from a fiery collision that may have claimed her life.

Officials said a tractor-trailer driver arrived at the right place at the right time to rescue the co-pilot.

Pct. The eight lieutenant colonel patrol was stopped on the northbound lane of the East Beltway near San Augustine when a truck plowed behind it around 2 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Pasadena Police Department.

The collision caused the patrol car to hit a wall and catch fire.

Video from the scene shows both vehicles smashed. The patrol unit was completely destroyed after it caught fire.

Deputy K. LeMelle was discharged from the hospital around 7 a.m., officials said.

She had to put 10 pins on the top of her head because of the bad cut and 3 stitches on her chin.

She is staying with her family and resting thanks to the rickshaw driver who saved her life, Pct. 8 officials said.

“I’m not going to leave her in there and let her die,” the truck driver, Richard Borgstrom, told ABC13.

Things could have ended much differently for LeMelle. Borgstrom happened to be driving down the Beltway when he said he heard a loud bang and then saw an explosion.

Borgstrom said: “As I was driving down the Beltway, I rolled down the window and heard the explosion of the crash.

Three people inside the truck rushed into the deputy position. Two people were taken to hospital, police said. Everyone involved suffered non-life threatening injuries.

LeMelle was trapped inside her car.

“I banged on the window, and all of a sudden, I saw a hand come out of the smoke where they had airbags, side airbags. Her hand came out from around there, and I noticed the claws. her light hands,” Borgstrom said. “I punched the glass with my hand, couldn’t break it, I ran back to my trailer, grabbed a trailer tow bar, ran back out there, and I smashed the window out with the trailer tow rope. .”

After breaking the window, Borgstrom said he was able to pull the co-pilot with her vest to safety. Two people from the work truck also helped pull her out.

“She was stunned. She was completely out of it. She was suffocating in Tahoe,” he recalls.

Officials said it was good that the co-pilot was pulled from the vehicle while she was there, as she also had ammunition in the vehicle that started to explode.

When officers arrived at the scene, they had to shield the bullets from flying out of the vehicle.

Pct. Eight officials said LeMelle has been with the department for three years. She works with the road toll department and works the night shift.

Constable Phil Sandlin is giving a big thank you to Borgstrom for saving his lieutenant. He says they have a good relationship with the shipwreck drivers and really appreciate their help.

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