Man Honored for Bravery at Fiery Crash

It is a night Walter (Trey) Holland will not soon forget.

Driving home from his girlfriend’s house, he watched in horror as a pickup truck in front of him skidded out of control on the Ventura Freeway and burst into flames. Although the next several minutes are a blur in his mind, the 29-year-old Holland remembers only too distinctly the faces of the dying men he tried to save.

As flames singed the hair on his arms, Holland pulled one man from the wreckage, saving his life. Three others perished in the May 3 crash in Woodland Hills.

On Tuesday, the California Highway Patrol honored Holland for his bravery.

“Next to getting shot, this is the most horrible thing a patrol officer can come across, and when a citizen comes across it, his actions should be doubly commended,” CHP Capt. Joe Ruggiero said during a brief ceremony at the Warner Center hotel where Holland works as a bellman.

In a bizarre footnote to the incident, the man Holland rescued did not linger to thank him. Seconds after he was pulled from the truck, the man bolted across the freeway and disappeared in the night. His clothes were still smoldering.

CHP Officer Jayne Suits said the man was later identified as Sergio Landa, 23. She said Landa, an illegal alien, fled to his native Mexico after the crash.

Family members told investigators that Landa now sits at home alone, his face disfigured by burns from the crash.

Holland said several people stopped at the accident, but he alone acted to help the men trapped in the flames. He said he does not know why; it was an automatic response. “I’d do it again at the drop of a hat,” said Holland, who came to California from Texas three years ago to pursue an acting career.

Holland said he tried to pull a second man from the cab, but something prevented him from pulling the man through the windshield. “I tried to grab his arms, to pull him out,” he said. “He was just burning to death, but his hips got stuck, or maybe he was still wearing his seat belt.

“It was just too hot. I couldn’t do anything else.”