Good Samaritan who helped pull driver from burning semi: 'It needed to be done'

The Minnesota man who helped a state trooper pull an endangered driver from a burning semi says he did so because "It's what we were raised to do."

On Friday morning Paul Langseth – a Worthington business owner – spoke about his actions on a Windom highway earlier this week, which the State Patrol called "heroic."

A semi-truck driver had failed to stop, and rear-ended another semi that was stationary on Highway 60 near 400th Avenue, the State Patrol said on Facebook. (See photos from the scene above.)

At that point Langseth hurried over and helped the trooper at the scene get the injured driver away from the wreckage.

The driver (49-year-old Michael Junker of Trimont, Minnesota) is recovering from significant – but not life threatening – injuries, and the trooper said he couldn't have gotten the driver to safety without Langseth's help.

"It needed to be done," Langseth said Friday, according to a State Patrol tweet. "I'd like to think anyone else would have done the same."

According to the Daily Globe, Langseth and his wife were driving to the State Fair for a concert at the time, and were waiting in stopped traffic for a funeral procession.

They heard the crash, and Langseth got out to help.

Afterward, Langseth and his wife left – and the State Patrol didn't know who the Good Samaritan was.

So they put out a Facebook post trying to find the man. It got more than 4,800 shares, and the State Patrol tracked Langseth down Thursday.

"This is a good story," he said Friday, according to a the State Patrol. "There are people out there like me who are willing and able to help."