After Samuel Orbovich’s car swerved to avoid hitting another vehicle on Interstate 94 in St. Paul, his SUV struck a lamppost and a guide rail. He was knocked unconscious as his car burst into flames at the side of the road.
Delivery driver Michael Coy, 52, who was traveling on the same stretch of road near the Snelling Avenue exit on April 28, 2024, immediately stopped and came to Orbovich’s rescue, climbing into the burning vehicle to help the 71-year-old Orbovich escape.
On Thursday, the Carnegie Hero Fund announced that Coy would receive the Carnegie Medal for Heroism, “North America’s highest honor for civilian heroism.”
Coy is the 114th person from Minnesota to receive the award, which was started 121 years ago by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The award is given throughout the U.S. and Canada to individuals who voluntarily risk “death or serious physical injury to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the life of another person.”
Orbovich’s rescue was captured on a car video by another passerby, Kadir Tolla, showing a group of other passersby and a driver from the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s Freeway Incident Response Team who went to the burning vehicle and helped pull Orbovich to safety out of the window of his car.
Carnegie Hero Fund spokeswoman Jewels Phraner, said Coy was singled out for recognition because he put himself at the most risk by getting inside of Orbovich’s car while it was on fire.
According to the Carnegie Hero fund, Coy initially got into the passenger seat of Orbovich’s car because the driver’s door was blocked by the guide rail. He helped Orbovich remove his seat belt, and then helped position him to sit on the console between the seats with his feet against the driver’s door.
Coy intended to drag Orbovich out of the passenger side, but flames and blistering heat entering the passenger compartment through the door, the dashboard vents and floorboards forced him out.
