Watch: SUV goes airborne, crashes

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Officer Rich Gardner was off duty when he saw an SUV cross lanes and leave the road before hitting an embankment on the side of State Road 415, launching it in the air.

“I gotta tell you, when they hit the trees it was just such a tremendous impact that my initial thought was there’s certainly no way somebody could survive this,” he said.

Gardner ventured to rescue the vehicle’s passengers and pulled a man and woman from the smoking car; they were hurt, but are expected to survive.

The event, as it quickly unfolded, was captured on Officer Gardner’s dashcam:

Gardner says that the driver of the SUV claimed to have been asleep at the wheel when they crashed.