A hero motorist tried to save a fellow lorry driver who was trapped in the flame-filled cab of his fuel tanker by climbing over the burning vehicle.
John Bellshaw told a fatal accident inquiry of his desperate battle to help Steven Mitchell after the crash near Ullapool as the 48-year-old pleaded: “I am burning. Get me out.”
The inquiry into the Inverness father’s death heard it was the last words he spoke as the cab went “from a fire to an inferno”, Mr Bellshaw told Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood at Inverness Sheriff Court.
Mr Mitchell’s family were in court to hear the graphic details of Mr Bellshaw’s heroic attempt to save their loved one on December 19, 2015.
Outside the court, his widow Norma thanked Mr Bellshaw for trying to save her husband, adding: “He did everything he could. He put his own life at risk to try and save my husband. Unfortunately, he couldn’t.
“But we are still very grateful to him.”
Mr Mitchell’s tanker had overturned onto the driver’s side on the A835 Ullapool to Inverness road, near Ullapool, at about lunchtime. Mr Bellshaw arrived and was told the driver was still inside.
He said: “I climbed on top of the tanker in the hope of getting in the passenger door. But I couldn’t. Then the lady who was on the phone said the police had told he to tell me to get off.”
Mr Bellshaw said that was when he fell under the tanker on to bushes. “When I sat up, I saw the driver through the window. He spoke to me – a few words – he said ‘I am burning, get me out.’
“I said: ‘I am trying.’ He couldn’t get out and I couldn’t get in.
“I then climbed out over the top of the tanker, and found a fire extinguisher in a compartment of the lorry. But it wouldn’t work when I pressed the handle.
“But I don’t think it would have made any difference by then. The fire was beyond an extinguisher. It went from a fire to an inferno.”
Mr Bellshaw said it was then that he realised he himself was in danger.
“I said to myself I couldn’t be there any longer. It was getting to the stage there could have been an explosion because there was a substantial escape of fuel.”
Firefighter of 26 years, Malcolm MacLeod said: “It was impossible. The cabin was completely orange – it was in flames. We had to stay 50ft away from it in case of an explosion.”
The inquiry continues.