Watch: Passenger Rescued After Explosive Street Racing Crash in New Mexico

Videos released by police in New Mexico capture the fiery crash of a street race gone bad and the moment police reached into an overturned, burning car to save a young man from the flames.

Police in Farmington, a city of 46,000 in northern New Mexico, released the footage of the September 26 crash to “highlight the dangers of street racing,” according to news reports.

In the released videos, a surveillance camera shows a white sedan speeding down the road before it sideswipes another moving vehicle.

That slight impact was enough to spin the car around, hit a parked car, and flip over into a nearby parking lot as it exploded into a fireball.

Another vehicle identified by police as involved in the race, a red Toyota Supra, was not far behind the crashed car and screeched to a stop right near it.

According to a report by Albuquerque’s KRQE News 13, the vehicles apparently were fleeing police who were trying to make a traffic stop after the cars passed a squad car during a street race.

A squad car can be seen pursuing the pair. However, that turned out to be fortunate as cops were there in seconds to rescue its passenger in the burning car.

Bodycam footage shows an officer pulling out a passenger from the overturned white sedan as the back of the passenger’s sweatshirt was on fire. Identified in reports only as a 20-year-old man, he was later taken away by paramedics.

The driver of the white van, police said, identified only as a 27-year-old man, escaped the burning car unscathed. Police said charges are pending against him.

The driver of the red Toyota, who police identified as 22-year-old Kalynn Kenworthy, was later charged with racing on highways, the Daily Mail reported.

Kenworthy, who was not injured, was booked into the San Juan County Detention Center. The Mail reported she has an extensive history of traffic violations and had been cited for racing in 2023 and also in August, a month before the crash.

Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.