BISMARCK, ND ( KXNET ) — Last week, we told you the story of a family in Bismarck who was severely hurt in a traffic crash last summer.

This week, we’re visiting with more of the people who were involved in the crash along Centennial Road .

Nobody was killed, partially thanks to the quick actions of one man who was nearby when it happened.

“I’ve got probably half a dozen calls that stick in the back of my mind over the years that I’ll never forget,” said Bismarck rural firefighter Brandon Hass.

For Hass, there’s no such thing as a day off.

“I was on the way home and I started seeing all the cars slow down and I saw one of the vehicles sideways,” Hass said.

Hass, like hundreds of other drivers, was taking Centennial Road the morning of June 28 last year.

“It just takes over, you really can’t control it,” Hass said.

Two vehicles collided. Hass, who serves on the Bismarck Rural Fire Department, hopped out and pulled two people from the burning vehicle, one of them being Dustin Murphy.

“I just told them, this is really going to suck, it’s really going to hurt and I’m sorry. But your vehicle is on fire, we’ve got to get you out of here,” Hass said.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever not think about that day,” Murphy said. “I started walking again, I want to say about four months after that.”

Just over a year after the crash, both families involved are still living with the pain of what happened that day. And for Dustin Murphy and his stepson, the road to recovery is a long one.

“It shattered my right ankle, fractured my left heel, broke three ribs, six slipped discs, and broke my eye socket,” Murphy said.

For his effort, Hass was nominated by the ND Highway Patrol for the Colonel’s Award of Excellence.

“I was like, I don’t want this, I don’t need this, I did what I was trained to do. And he said, ‘Mr. Hass, people don’t turn this down,'” Hass said.

Murphy says he and his stepson are making progress, but a year later, these working hands aren’t able to work just yet.

“It’s hard to put trust back into a foot if it’s been broken, you haven’t used it for many months,” Murphy said.

Murphy says the pain never leaves. He hasn’t had a peaceful night’s sleep in over a year. But he says he’s thankful for Hass and that he and his stepson are still alive.

The North Dakota Highway Patrol tells KX News they finished their investigation into the crash.
They then forwarded it to the Burleigh County state’s attorney, but no charges have been filed.

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