‘Selfless Actions’: Texas Police Officer Pulls Driver From Burning Car on Highway, Receives Award

The police officer was busy writing a ticket on the shoulder of Texas State Highway 114 in Southlake, a city just outside Dallas, when a situation suddenly heated up.

An oily haze of smoke caught his eye a split second before his radio crackled. Looking up from his paperwork, Corporal Joshua Swisher saw a sedan pass his cruiser, rolling west down the highway, while spewing plumes of gray exhaust under the evening sun. He spurred into action, abandoning his traffic stop to give chase—leaving the driver on the shoulder with a lucky break.

Swisher tailed the sedan, a Nissan Altima, and successfully flagged the driver of the fuming car to pull over near the 900 block of East Highway 114. By the time both vehicles ground to a halt, orange flames were already licking the asphalt below the frame.

Yelling for the man to exit, Swisher reached for the driver’s side door handle, but the mechanism failed and snapped off. Smoke was already pouring from a gap where the window was rolled halfway down, prompting the officer to shout for the driver to climb out through the opening. The space, however, was far too small.

Swisher instructed the man to try lowering the window, but it remained stationary. Slipping on a pair of gloves, the officer gripped the top edge of the window and pulled outward until the glass shattered, clearing an escape route. He reached through the smoke, gripped the driver by the arms, and hauled him out through the frame onto the shoulder.

As they moved away from the burning vehicle, Swisher looked back to ensure the driver was the sole occupant. “Anybody else in the car?” he asked. Told the vehicle was empty, the officer radioed back to dispatch: “He’s OK.”

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The entire operation took less than 20 seconds. While hundreds of afternoon commuters continued streaming past on Highway 114—oblivious to the situation on the shoulder—the Nissan Altima was completely consumed by the fire, the cause of which remains officially undetermined.

Both men walked away from the incident; the driver was reunited with his family uninjured, while Swisher sustained minor burns to his arm and singed uniform sleeves.

When the Southlake Department of Public Safety (DPS) posted the dashcam and bodycam footage online weeks later, the recording quickly went viral. On social media, viewers noted the speed of the escalation, with local online community pages citing the footage as a vivid reminder of the unpredictable nature of roadside police work. For his actions, the department awarded Swisher the Meritorious Conduct Award, its second-highest honor.

“Every day, our officers are prepared to respond to situations that can change in an instant,” DPS Police Chief Ashleigh Casey later stated. “This incident is a powerful reminder that there is no such thing as a routine traffic stop or call.”

She noted that Corporal Swisher’s “selfless actions” reflect the DPS character and training.

True to form for a veteran officer, Swisher downplayed the online praise, noting that any other member of the department would have done the exact same thing.

The officer would later note with a laugh that the unfolding chaos saved his original traffic stop a fine; he simply had far too much else going on to finish writing the ticket.