NBC News journalist Tom Costello made some good news of his own when he helped rescue a teenager from a burning car after an accident on I-495 in Montgomery County, Maryland. Costello was driving home from work on May 12 when he witnessed a “horrific” crash that caused a car to explode into f lames, he told viewers. “What happened was this car passed me last night as I’m leaving work at 100 miles per hour. That’s my guestimate,” Costello said as footage from the fiery crash filled the screen. “And that car then made a corner and slammed into a concrete barrier on the Beltway, on the Washington Beltway,” he continued. The collision caused the car to “explode into 100 pieces,” said Costello. “Not fire immediately, but pieces everywhere.” The car also “flipped up in the air” and “landed on the ground,” added the senior correspondent. “It was smoking. It was crushed,” said Costello. Witnessing the horror, Costello thought to himself that if the driver survived the impact, he or she would “need help fast.” “I called 911. I said, get your trucks rolling right now. Somebody in here is in bad shape. I’m sure of it,” Costello recalled. Fearing the worst, Costello then rushed to the car and opened the driver’s side door. “I thought he would be dead, honestly,” he said of the car’s young driver. “I thought nobody could survive this.” The teenager behind the wheel appeared “stunned,” said Costello. “He wasn’t speaking. He had a gaze in his eyes. He was looking out the front windshield,” he added. Costello asked the teen if he could hear him, then asked if he could feel his fingers and toes. “Barely,” the teen responded. Costello then asked, “What hurts?” “Everything hurts,” the teen responded. As other eyewitnesses rushed over to help, Costello noticed then a fire was forming underneath the car. Though Costello hesitated to move the driver for fear his injuries were serious, the fire beneath the car was “getting worse and worse.” Costello began waving his hands in the air to get the attention of other drivers on the Beltway. One of the drivers who stopped to help turned out to be an orthopedic surgeon. The surgeon joined Costello and a third rescuer as the three worked together to carefully remove the driver from the blazing car. The surgeon, Costello recalled, “grabbed the head and the neck of this young kid, a 17-year-old. “I got his torso. And then there was a woman who grabbed the legs. Turns out she was a nurse. “And we carried him down the off ramp to safety,” Costello said. Costello and the others pulled off their rescue in the nick of time. “Then the car really caught fire and exploded,” said Costello. “It was horrific.” Costello expressed his gratitude to his fellow rescuers and said he was so shaken he “didn’t get to sleep” for a long time that night. “I think the lesson here is watch your kids,” he told viewers, calling the accident a “wake-up call.” “This was a 17-year-old. Probably hadn’t been driving long. One hundred miles per hour,” he said. “I can’t believe he’s alive, to be honest with you.” This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY: Woman Orders $50 Cheesecake From Neighborhood Baker for Daughter’s Birthday. What She Gets Goes Viral I Tried the Pickle Smoothie From Smoothie King and Grillo’s. Here’s What It Tastes Like Emily Blunt in American Institute for Stuttering PSA ...read more read less