A teen driver was on his way home from a friend’s house when he and his passenger witnessed a vicious crash involving a semi tractor trailer and a car on Interstate 70 east early Saturday morning.

Alec Batton, 16, has only been a fully-licensed driver for two weeks. He saw the crash happen around 2:45 a.m. in the eastbound lanes of I-70 east of the Ohio 48 exit.

“We just pulled over. We called 911 and tried to remember everything that we learned in driver’s ed to do right,” Batton said.

Batton and his friend Olivia King, 18, had just left a friend’s house and were on their way home. Batton said he saw the semi brake and all of a sudden he saw the car with heavy back side damage.

Three people were inside the red Toyota Corolla, that firefighters said was rear-ended by the semi.

“Any time a small and a large vehicle, like a semi, come together, we often find that it’s not good for the smaller vehicle,” Englewood Assistant Fire Chief Ronald Fletcher said.

All three adults were transported to Miami Valley Hospital with what Fletcher described as minor injuries. It was a lucky outcome considering the damage the small car sustained.

“It really doesn’t matter road conditions,” Fletcher said. “Sunny and 70, cars still crash, find a way to run into one another, but we find the higher the speed, lack of safety devices, the more severe the injuries.”

In this morning’s crash Fletcher said all of the occupants of the car were wearing safety belts.

Troopers said speed and alcohol are not suspected as contributing to the crash.

Considering he’s only been driving by himself for two weeks, Batton said this morning’s crash was a friendly wake-up call.

“Be careful, very careful as you drive, because anything can happen in a split-second,” Batton said.

The crash remains under investigation.