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Bowling Green coach Dino Babers helped pull driver from burning vehicle

(Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)
(Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)

Bowling Green coach Dino Babers sprung to action after witnessing a vehicle catch fire on Saturday.

According to the Toledo Blade, Babers, along with assistant athletic trainer Chelsea Lowe, were traveling on the first of four team buses returning to campus from the Falcons’ game at Buffalo when they saw a car “swerve in front of the bus and hit the center divider” and catch on fire.

The bus Babers and Lowe were riding in was unaffected by the accident but stopped “a short distance away” from the burning car. That’s when Babers and Lowe turned their attention to the driver of the vehicle.

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From the Blade:

“The closer we got to the car, the clearer we could see smoke billowing,” Lowe said. “We knew whoever was in the car wasn’t just going to walk away and have everything be OK.”

The pair helped pull the injured driver, identified by Avon, Ohio, police as 25-year-old Amber Nettles of Elyria, out of the car and a safe distance away from the burning vehicle before local police and fire officials arrived.

“Chelsea was there comforting the woman, and I went back to the car to get her purse and keys and other valuables,” Babers said.

Avon police confirmed the crash and said Nettles was taken to St. John Medical Center in Westlake. A hospital spokesman said they had no information on a patient by that name.

“We had carried or dragged her about 30 feet away to what was a safer place,” Lowe said. “My main concern was to hold her in a position where she was as comfortable as possible while we waited for paramedics, and that she stayed alert and as pain-free as possible while we waited.”

Babers said a couple that helped him after he crashed his car in 1987 inspired him to act when he saw the accident on Saturday. Babers said he tried to give the couple money as a way to thank them, but the woman told him to pay it forward instead.

From the Blade:

“I kept trying to give this couple some money to thank them for what they did, and they wouldn’t take it,” Babers said. “So I told the woman, ‘Ma’am, I’ve got to give you something.’

“And she said, ‘Promise me one thing: If you are ever driving, and you see someone on the side of the road, promise me you will stop.’ ”

Babers said he has done his best to keep that promise. Once he helped revive a person who had a heart attack in a hotel parking lot, and another time he helped extract two drivers from a car that had flipped in Dallas.

That's a great lesson there from Babers, who is now in his second season as BGSU head coach. With the win over Buffalo, the Falcons improved to 3-2 on the year with UMass coming to town on Saturday.

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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!