TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — It was a typical Uber trip back from Tampa International Airport for driver Almir Becirovic on Saturday, March 18, just like the thousands he had completed before then. Until a truck flipped over multiple times and crashed.
“How much he flipped and it’s really fast,” Becirovic recalled. “He’s a really, really lucky guy.”
Becirovic asked his passengers if he could help. They said yes and called 911, and he pulled over.
“When I was coming close to the car, I can see a lot of oil,” Becirovic explained. “I don’t see everything but it’s coming from the car.”
His passengers witnessed his heroism.
“He sees a hand and he doesn’t even think,” said John Fox, one of Becirovic’s riders. “He runs right for the car, fluids pouring out as I said, and lifts him up and pulls him out.”
Becirovic said the victim was able to stand, but was dazed and bloody everywhere.
“He had the glass everywhere,” Becirovic said. “On the body, hair, ears, on the eyes, on everywhere.”
Becirovic, for his part, says he was just trying to help.
“They ask me like, ‘Oh, you’re a hero.’ I say ‘I’m not, I was just there,'” Becirovic said. “You know, at the perfect time. But they say some other people would be too, but they will not stop.”
He said he hasn’t seen anything like it in his more than six years with Uber.
“You see some other stuff,” Becirovic said. “But it’s not like this.”
His passengers were stunned too.
“It was this terrifying moment,” Fox remembered. “But then it turned into this — it was humanity at its best.”
Becirovic also thanked his passengers for letting him pull over in the first place.
“That’s how I grow,” Becirovic said. “I’m going to help out with people. And that’s me, I never have any problems in my life, try to be a good person.”
In a statement, Uber said, “Almir’s swift and courageous action during such a scary situation is nothing short of heroic. His bravery and selflessness make the Uber community stronger.”