The Bell Law Firm, PLLC

There's a sad irony in this story of two truckers who saved a woman from her burning vehicle. They risked their lives and have suffered physically and emotionally since that day. And the woman they saved may have been responsible for the crash -- she told police she deliberately drove into the guardrail. This didn't happen in West Virginia, but it easily could have.

In March of 2009, the two men were driving together when they came across the accident. The vehicle, a Hummer, had gone through a guardrail and over the embankment. A handful of people were at the scene, trying to help. The car and its driver were engulfed in flames.

One man pulled her free; the other carried her to safety. A month later, the Highway Patrol honored the two as heroes in a formal ceremony.

The first rescuer said he still dreams of the woman's screams and the image of her hair melting to her head, the last thing he saw as he dragged her out of the car. "There isn't a night that goes by that I don't wake up in a sweat," he said more than two years later.

He explained that the fire was so intense it melted the cell phone he carried in his pocket. The hair was burned from his body, and the smoke filled his lungs. The injury to his lungs was so bad, he said, that he isn't able to carry a laundry basket upstairs.

According to the official accident report, the 28-year-old woman behind the wheel told investigators she wanted to kill herself that day. There was an argument, she said. She deliberately drove into the guardrail on the bridge. She remembered nothing after the moment of impact.

Her rescuers say in their complaint that the driver operated her vehicle "intentionally and/or recklessly and/or negligently." She caused the crash; she caused the fire. Both men say their injuries are permanent.

An officer with the Highway Patrol says he believes she would have died if the two men hadn't come along. He still believes they are heroes.

Source: Fox News, "Rescuers Who Saved Ohio Woman From Burning Vehicle Sue Her," Aug. 2, 2011