Ken Taylor was driving back to Valdosta from Florida with his wife and two dogs when they saw an upside-down van slide past them through an intersection.
Taylor, understandably, was surprised.
“The first thing I thought was, ‘Am I really seeing this?’” he said.
Once he had time to process what he was seeing, the sergeant with the Valdosta Fire Department pulled his car to the side of the road and, without saying a word to his wife, sprang into action.
Wearing shorts and a plain T-shirt, a groomed goatee and tattoos covering his arms and legs, Taylor didn’t look like the classic image of a firefighter in full gear. But that Sunday afternoon in March, he was the first person to do something for people in need of help.
“It was just reflex,” he said. “There was already a lot of people just standing around the van, but nobody was doing anything.”