Travis Wilson was simply signing up for housing when the homeless veteran heard a boom nearby and rushed to the aid of a bloodied victim in a serious car accident.
Wilson, who told ABC affiliate WPLG he is a former Navy corpsman, was first on the scene at the accident in Pembroke Pines, Florida, in harrowing video provided to the station. In the video, you see Wilson leaning into the crushed passenger side window of one of the vehicles and assisting the driver with blood splattered across the front seat.
"We get around the corner and I see what's going on and speed up, and then, I just turn it on and go sprinting to the vehicle," Wilson told WPLG.
Wilson stabilized the driver's neck and waited until paramedics arrived on the scene.
"You can't leave the scene," Wilson said. "I can't leave the scene -- it doesn't matter if the vehicle catches on fire. It doesn't matter. I'm there with him. If we're gonna die, we're gonna die together."
Wilson was interviewing with the nonprofit Operation Sacred Trust when the accident occurred in the street nearby. Operation Sacred Trust assists homeless and low-income veterans find a place to live in the Miami area.
Wilson, who has been arrested multiple times, most seriously for possession of cocaine and theft, according to WPLG, told the station he had fallen on hard times after leaving the military.
Pembroke Pines police told WPLG the driver of the white car who was assisted by Wilson was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. The driver of the car that hit the white sedan, who WPLG reports was an off-duty officer with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, sustained only minor injuries.
