SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – The Seminole County Fire Department on Friday honored a Winter Springs resident who sprang into action and helped save a car crash victim earlier this year.
A ceremony at Fire Station 21 saw Donny Daugherty given a “Citizen Life Saving Award” for breaking the windshield of a car that crashed with another vehicle near an electrical transformer and caught fire Feb. 12 in Casselberry, rescuing the patient — Gina Ligonde — who Daugherty was reunited with at the event.
“I was the first person closest to the accident, there was no way that I couldn’t at least try to lend some sort of assistance,” Daugherty said. “My initial reaction, I just turned and I cut through the median and I pulled up in front of the car (...) I’m kicking the windshield, I’m yelling, ‘Is anybody in there? Is anybody in there? Please respond.’”
By the time Seminole County fire crews arrived, both drivers were already outside of their vehicles and being helped by Daugherty and other bystanders, officials said.
“There aren’t enough words or even enough money or acts of kindness that I can possibly express the appreciation. If it wasn’t for him, again, I would not be here,” Ligonde said of Daugherty. “I thank God that he responded, that he did not look the other way.”
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The transformer fire required “specialized additives” to extinguish and Duke Energy reported as many as 250 local power outages in the area for several hours after the crash, according to the fire department.
Ligonde took a moment to talk to Patrick Haney, too. Haney and his wife saw the crash while they were walking that day — he said he ran to the scene while his wife called 911.
“I did not think anyone was going to crawl out of that car, but sure enough it was a miracle that (Ligonde) had just crawled out of the back and she was grabbed and moved over to me,” Haney said.
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