Jason Warnock is being hailed as a hero after he was identified as the person who pulled a motorist from a wrecked SUV that was dangling on the edge of a cliff in Idaho earlier this week.
Authorities said Warnock's "quick and decisive action" saved the life of 23-year-old Mathew Sitko as his vehicle teetered on the edge of the drop, suspended
only by a chain link fence, the Lewiston Tribune reported.
A photographer captured the moment 29-year-old Warnock pulled Sitko through the window of the crashed SUV, but police said the good Samaritan left the scene before they could identify him.
Warnock later told police that he saw debris on Bryden Canyon Road in Lewiston and then spotted Sitko's stranded SUV. Warnock said he got Sitko to calm down and roll the window down so he could be pulled out to safety, according to the Tribune.
Warnock said he left the scene because he was working at the time and did not want the attention.
Witnesses told the newspaper that Sitko had been driving "fast and erratically" and nearly struck another motorist before leaving the roadway and crashing his vehicle.
The SUV gradually veered off the right side of the road through shrubbery in a yard before hitting a cottonwood tree.
Warnock told NBC News that Sitko seemed disoriented when he reached him.
"He was pretty broke up in what he was saying but then he was like, 'I started reading the Bible last night,'" he said. "And I was like that's awesome, you know, that's great. Great news."
"I think maybe God . . . put me here at the right time, and he held you up here for sure for a reason," Warnock continued. "Maybe it's meant to bring you closer to him."
Police told ABC News that its investigation "showed some type of mental episode may have been responsible for the collision."