David A. Dulkis and Darren Cox, nearby motorists who saw a burning SUV at the bottom of an embankment responded to the Feb. 3, 2018, accident in Corona, California. The 23-year-old driver Saul D. Flores was slumped over the steering wheel when Dulkis, a 47-year-old executive chef of Corona, arrived at the scene. Dulkis pulled hard on the door several times until he yanked it open. Flames by then had reached the passenger compartment and spread to the back of the front, passenger seat. Dulkis failed to unbuckle Flores’ seat belt, so he lifted the shoulder strap over Flores’ head and arms and struggled to pull his torso and legs through the lap belt. Cox, 35, of Riverside, California, arrived about then and, as flames encroached on the driver’s seat, helped pull Flores through the lap belt and out of the vehicle. As they laid him on the ground outside the vehicle, ammunition from inside it began exploding. They moved him farther away. Flores died, and Dulkis suffered second-degree burns to an arm. Cox has subsequently moved to Corona.
90372-10188/ 90371-10189