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A Texas A&M University student was ticketed this week after he stopped to help a woman whose car was on fire, stepped into traffic and was hit by an oncoming vehicle.
J.D. Swiger was taken to the College Station Medical Center after the accident on Wellborn Road on Sunday.
He was in a hospital bed with a neck brace on and surrounded by several nurses when a College Station Police Department officer wrote him a $300 ticket for failure to yield the right of way to the vehicle.
The junior finance major from San Antonio said he didn't understand the officer's decision.
"It was like a slap in the face. It was insult to injury," he said. "I begged him to write me a warning. I told him I had learned my lesson. And he proceeded to write the ticket. The nurses were livid at him for doing that."
Kate Shafer, the woman whose car was on fire, was also surprised when she found out about the citation.
"I just couldn't believe it," she said. "Here was this Good Samaritan, trying to help me. He gets hit by a car. And he's not even mad at the person who hit him, he just wanted to avoid a $300 ticket. I think that's ridiculous."
Shafer said she had run into the back of a vehicle that had stopped at a red light, and flames started coming from the engine of her car.
"I remembered I had a fire extinguisher in my trunk, but I'd had it for 15 years," Shafer said. "I started trying to use it and there was one puff, one burst, then it was gone."
That's when Swiger showed up, she said.
"I told her to wait right there and I'd go across the street to get a fire extinguisher," he said.
Swiger said he looked both ways before starting to cross the street but didn't see any cars nearby.
"As soon as I stepped out, I got hit," he said, suggesting the car might have been hidden by the Shafer's vehicle. "I flew up on the hood, then she slammed on her brakes. And then I flew and did some tumbles and hit my head."
Shafer said the accident was terrifying.
"Seeing that upset me more than my car or the fire," she said. "Seeing him get hit by that car and fly 15 or 20 feet into the air -- I couldn't believe it. I started shouting."
Swiger picked himself up after the accident, and Shafer said he was holding his head and asking for his glasses.
"Someone went out into the road and got them for him," she said. "And they weren't even scratched. I was thinking though, 'Forget the glasses. You're alive!'"
Swiger received a staple in his head and had some bruises and scratches. He said he had a mild limp for a few days, but other than that, he was fine.
"I really think God was looking out for me that day," he said. "I really think that has something to do with it. I truly believe he protected me."
Swiger went to the Brazos County Courthouse on Thursday to pay the ticket and asked a county prosecutor about the chances of getting it dismissed.
Swiger said the prosecutor seemed embarrassed when he told her the story, and when Shafer verified the facts, the citation was dropped.
College Station police said they are reviewing the case to see if the ticket was warranted.
"I have talked to the commander of the officer involved in that, and he is looking into it," said Lt. Rodney Sigler, a spokesman for the College Station Police Department. "There is a time to utilize discretion, and this may be a case where we need to."
Sigler said it's possible the matter could have been resolved without a citation, but he didn't know all of the details that led the officer to issuing the ticket. The officer joined the department in June 2008.
"When you start dealing with discretion and human beings, you're going to get differences in opinion and judgment," he said. "There are times with newer officers where they might not understand that. It's part of growing and learning as an officer."
