Sam Orbovich said he is the “luckiest man on the face of the Earth.”

The 72-year-old retired attorney from St. Paul is best known by people around the world as the unidentified man who was pulled feet first from his burning car last year in St. Paul by a group of motorists and a Minnesota Department of Transportation “highway helper,” just seconds before it became fully engulfed in flames.

The rescue received international attention after cameras on the car of one of the good Samaritans captured the dramatic events along Interstate 94 near Snelling Avenue.

“None of them think of themselves as a hero,” Orbovich said of rescuers Michael Coy, Tesfaye Deyasso, Lacie Kramer, Tessa Sand, Kadir Tolla and Dave Klepaida. “But they were, if you watch the video.”

Orbovich and his wife, Cindy, were on hand Thursday as the six were presented with the Minnesota State Patrol’s Meritorious Citizenship Award at its annual recognition ceremony of troopers and others at Mendakota Country Club in Mendota Heights.

Orbovich nominated the group, which he now calls “his good friends.”

“They were very persistent,” he said, adding the minor explosions and flames “wouldn’t stop them. They’d go running back.”Crash and rescue

It was about 6:30 p.m. April 18 when Orbovich was eastbound on I-94 before Snelling Avenue and drifted to the right. His vehicle left the road, struck a light pole and then a guardrail, and started on fire.

Orbovich said the crash and airbags caused amnesia, “but the last thing that I remember before getting knocked out was a dark car coming up on my left very fast. And what I must have done was overcorrect to stay away from that car.”

Because his Honda CRV was on the other side of the guardrail, it prevented the driver’s side door from opening. The video, captured by Tolla’s Tesla Model Y, shows the group, including some motorists who are still unidentified, pulling on the door as flames took over the front of the SUV.

“We kept on trying,” Tolla, 36, of Brooklyn Park, recalled Thursday. “But the flames were too high.”

Tolla is seen in the video frantically trying to smash the driver’s window with a piece of plastic debris from Orbovich’s SUV.

Klepaida, a MnDOT Freeway Incident Response Safety Team (FIRST) driver for 10 years, then ran up and used a window punch, which FIRST drivers have on their keychains, and broke the driver’s window.

Tolla and other people gathered were able to pull Orbovich out the window and carry him to safety.

“About 15 seconds later, the entire car went up in flames,” Orbovich said.

Cindy Orbovich said she was cooking dinner and waiting for him to get home from his job when she got a call from Sand, a registered nurse who was heading to work at United Hospital when she saw the crash and pulled over.

“Tessa was very calm, and that really helped,” Cindy Orbovich said of the phone call. “She said that Sam was just fine, but there had been a crash and a fire.”

Orbovich, who had abrasions on his back, was evaluated at Regions Hospital and discharged four hours later.

Sam and Cindy Orbovich both said they didn’t know exactly how bad the crash was until Sam’s sister called from Ohio the next morning to tell them there’s footage of it going viral on social media.

“And when we saw that, it was kind of mind-boggling,” Cindy said. “To see how much the car was on fire … we were so grateful, and just couldn’t believe it was that bad.”

Sam and Cindy met the group of rescuers at Nina’s Coffee Cafe in St. Paul less than a month after the crash.

“Oh, it was just great,” said Sam, who in June retired from the Minneapolis law firm Fredrikson & Byron. “It was great because it was the first time that they got a chance to congratulate each other for this. And it was my first time to thank them.”

Klepaida brought a gift to give Orbovich — the window punch.

“I figured, why not?” said Klepaida, 61, of Cottage Grove. “The infamous window punch.”

Cindy found a framed box to put it in, and it now sits on a shelf at their Cathedral Hill home.

“You know, this was really something that was an extraordinary event that brought a lot of people together,” Sam said.

Sand, 24, of St. Paul, said she was happy to see him again Thursday.

“We’re Facebook friends, and all that,” she said. “But just to see him living his life, it’s exciting.”

State Patrol honors

State Patrol employees honored during Thursday’s ceremony included:

• Sgt. Kyle Backer, who works in the St. Cloud district, was named Trooper of the Year.

• Lt. Kevin Skalsky of the east metro district was given the Leadership Award. Thursday was his last day with the State Patrol. His 28-year career included serving as commander of the State Patrol Honor Guard since 2014, and teaching Mobile Response Team operations and tactics to law enforcement agencies across the state.

• Trooper Gustavo Culbeaux, who works in the west metro district, was given the Eagle Squadron Award for arresting the most impaired drivers (222) last year. It marks the sixth consecutive year that he’s won the award.

• Lts. Mike Eck, Mike Gensmer, Pat Miles and Kevin Skalsky were recognized for coordinating the massive funeral procession for fallen Burnsville police officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge and firefighter-paramedic Adam Finseth that was held on Feb. 28 in Eden Prairie.

• Trooper John Kubatt was recognized for saving a man’s life by applying an AED, followed by chest compressions, at a freeway ramp in Pine Springs on April 27.

• Sgt. Vang Yang was recognized for pulling a man from a burning car on the side of Interstate 35W in Roseville on Sept. 9.