Two German teenagers had been on American soil for only about 20 minutes when their ride from the airport ended up crumpled on the shoulder of Interstate 35 in Logan County, Oklahoma. Temperatures on the roadway reached 106 degrees as they waited, stranded, for help. That help arrived in the form of an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper who ended up doing far more than directing traffic.
The crash happened as J. Todd Crosby was driving his granddaughter and her friend north from Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City toward Stillwater, a trip that typically covers somewhere between 72 and 90 miles along Interstate 35 and connecting highways, according to Mozio. Crosby's truck was rear-ended by another vehicle and pushed into a second car, according to News 9. The collision left the truck inoperable, but News 9 reports no one involved was seriously injured.
An Oklahoma Highway Patrol social media post explained the underlying cause of the pileup: active grass fires burning in Logan County had backed up traffic on the interstate, setting up the sudden slowdown that led to the crash. Central Oklahoma had been dealing with a rash of grass fires and heat advisories through mid-August, per the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, with local volunteer departments and state forestry crews working together to contain the flames, as reported by KOKH FOX 25 News.
Trooper Steps In When the Tow Truck Runs Out of Room
With the truck disabled and the group stuck on the shoulder in extreme heat, a tow truck arrived — but it only had room for one passenger. That left the two teenagers without a way to finish the trip to Crosby's home. Trooper Konner Dowell, who carries badge number 460 in OHP Troop A, offered to take the two teenagers there himself, and gave them a ride to get them out of the heat and off the roadside.
August in central Oklahoma routinely brings average highs into the upper 90s and past 100 degrees, conditions that raise the risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke for anyone stuck on a highway shoulder, according to Skyscanner. Asphalt surfaces can run even hotter than the surrounding air during a heat wave like the one gripping the region, making Dowell's decision to move the teens indoors more than a courtesy.
Crosby later thanked Dowell and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol publicly for the help. In a statement relayed by the agency, he noted that the two German teenagers had been in the country for just 20 minutes before the crash happened, and added, only half-joking, that Dowell would become “the talk of German TikTok.”
A Pattern of Roadside Assistance Along I-35
Offering rides to stranded travelers is not unusual for Oklahoma troopers. The agency, established in 1937, has long provided motorist assistance across the state's interstates, and troopers frequently step in to transport people when tow trucks lack the capacity, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. Logan County's own emergency agencies, including the Guthrie and Woodcrest fire departments, routinely coordinate with state troopers on highway incidents and wildfires along the same I-35 corridor that runs through the county connecting the Oklahoma City metro to Stillwater.
Oklahoma law also plays into scenes like this one. Under the state's Move Over Law, in effect since 2019, drivers approaching any stationary vehicle with flashing hazard or emergency lights on a state highway are required to change lanes or slow down, per the Oklahoma Department of Transportation. That statute exists precisely because of how dangerous highway shoulders can be for stranded drivers and the responders who reach them.
The danger is not hypothetical along this stretch of highway. Hoodline previously reported on an I-35 crash that killed a trooper in Oklahoma City in April, one of three deaths in that collision. Just a day later, an Oklahoma State University team bus was involved in another deadly crash on the same interstate. Those incidents, along with an August work-zone crash in Cotton County involving a semi and an attenuator truck, underscore how routinely troopers work dangerous roadside scenes on Oklahoma's high-speed corridors.
For the two German teenagers, the ordeal ended not with a tow-truck seat but with a state trooper's escort straight to Crosby's home in Stillwater, a story their families back in Germany are unlikely to forget anytime soon.
