Minneapolis officers pull occupants from fiery car crash

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 13) - A speeding car plunged off a Minneapolis overpass, onto a highway and caught fire in July.

When two police officers arrived the vehicle was smoldering. In dramatic dashcam video recently released by the Minneapolis Police Department, the smoke started to build as they tried to pry open the driver’s door.

“I knew the second I saw the flames coming out of the hood that we had a very, very short amount of time,” said a Minneapolis female officer who responded to the scene. “That’s when I yelled to my partner, ‘We’ve got to get these people out!’”

The driver’s door was too damaged to open, but the officers managed to open the front passenger’s door and pull the passenger out.

The back passenger door wouldn’t open either, therefore officers said they had to enter the front passenger door and cut the airbags in order to reach the driver. The steering wheel and seat belt were stuck and further prevented a quicker rescue.

Two bystanders came to help the officers and one of them took an officer’s knife to cut the seatbelt to finally pull the driver out.

Unfortunately, the driver died after being transported to the hospital.

In the final moments of the dashcam video, the car is fully engulfed in flames.