Click the play button on the video window to the right to see the storyPHOENIX -- A Phoenix man made a risky decision that ended up saving a stranger’s life last month.
Shauntae Ortiz and Jeremiah Banister met on a Valley freeway under the worst of circumstances. Ortiz's car was on fire and she was unable to stop.
“I was freaking out,” Ortiz said Thursday. “I didn’t know what to do.”
Banister spotted the car on Interstate 17 near Bell Road on June 15th and saw the flames growing.
“The car was filling with smoke,” said Ortiz. “I couldn’t even see my steering wheel. I was starting to feel like I was losing consciousness.”
That’s when Banister yelled to her that he was going to try to hit the car in order to maneuver a stop.
“It was pretty quick,” he said. “All I could think about was what would I want to have happen if it were my wife in trouble like that.”
Banister says he hit the car about four times, nudging the car onto the off ramp where he was finally able to push it to a stop on the shoulder.
“She had no other way to stop,” he said. “She might have kept going straight and to the intersection where she surely would have hit someone else.”
Banister himself suffers a rare disorder called Syringomelia, which destroys the spinal cord and eventually causes paralysis. Even a minor blow could have caused serious complications if not death.
“I’m thankful that he has a big enough heart to put himself in danger to help someone else,” said Ortiz.
“It was the right thing to do,” said Banister. “People aren’t replaceable.”
Ortiz's car was a total loss. Banister’s was damaged and is not drivable. It is his only form of transportation.
