Man details harrowing moments of fiery wreck, meets family of teen he saved

A Troy man is credited for helping save the lives of two teens who were caught in a fiery wreck on U.S. 2 and Walsh Road earlier this month.

Levi Lawson, 26, said he was traveling down the highway with his family after a visit to Whitefish when he came upon the July 10 accident at the intersection.

He pulled his car over and got out while his wife stayed inside and kept an eye on their twin 2-1/2-year-old girls. He first checked on the occupants of a Toyota Highlander that had accidentally pulled out in front of a northbound Subaru because their view was blocked by a tractor trailer truck making a turn onto Walsh Road.

The vehicle had three teenagers inside, but they appeared to be OK and were able to get out on their own, he said.

At first he wasn’t sure what had happened because the Subaru had crossed the road and went down in a ditch.

But then Lawson saw the smoke.

He ran over to the car and checked on the occupants. All five were teens heading to the Under the Big Sky festival.

He said at first the engine was just smoking. The flames came later. In the meantime, he checked on the driver, Kadence Rose, 17, of Kalispell.

He was able to pull her seat back and get her door open, but he could see she had a broken femur. He was unsure of how to move her and ambulance personnel weren’t on the scene yet.

Then he tried to get the passenger out, Colton Kuka, who is Kadence’s boyfriend, but he was jammed into the car. Kuka’s seat wouldn’t move back and the door wouldn’t open.

Concerned at the sight of flames, Lawson pulled Kuka by his arm through the open window.

Fortunately, the boy wasn’t very big.

“He was pretty small and that was a good thing,” Lawson recalled. “It still bothers me to see how lucky he was to get out of that window.”

Kuka didn’t suffer any broken bones, Lawson recalled, and he was able to stand up once he was out of the car.

By then, the vehicle was really starting to burn. Flathead County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived and Lawson said that once the boy was out of the car, he was determined to get Rose out quickly, broken leg or not.

The deputies helped him. By the time she was up on the bank, the car was fully engulfed.

Lawson said he doesn’t remember how the three teens in the back seat got out. But Gwen Rose, Kadence’s mother, credited Deputy Caleb Tappan for his efforts to get them out of the back seat.

One girl in the back had a bad head injury, but is recovering at a local hospital.

Gwen Rose was able to track Lawson down through law enforcement and social media to thank him for saving the teens’ lives. They got together with Kuka for a picture last week.

Lawson, who works the nightshift at Schellinger Construction, said it was just one of those situations where he wanted to help in any way possible. The whole ordeal lasted about 15 minutes, he said.

Montana Highway Patrol investigated the wreck and said no drugs or alcohol were involved. They deemed it an accident.