Hero Joe Taylor is to get a medal for climbing on to a blazing car to save its driver.

The crumpled vehicle was engulfed in flames after twice being hit on a motorway.

Joe, from Forest Row, near East Grinstead, dodged traffic as he ran to the opposite carriageway to try to help the driver.

When he could not extinguish the flames or even open the doors, Joe realised the only way to save the driver was to pull him out.

Thinking nothing of his own safety, he leapt on to the bonnet and lifted the man through the sunroof.

He has now learned he is to receive the Queen's Medal for Bravery for his actions.

The 43-year-old building contractor recalled how he saw the blazing car as he headed north on the M25 in Surrey on October 31, 2000.

He said: "I saw a plume of smoke a few hundred metres ahead on the other carriageway. Everybody slowed down to look and this car was engulfed in flames with a guy still in it.

"A couple of people were running around but not really doing anything. So I pulled on to the hard shoulder and ran across the motorway and over the central reservation.

"I stopped a tanker and got a fire extinguisher, which I turned on the guy in the car.

"The petrol tank had ruptured and the whole thing was alight. The inside was filled with smoke and flames.

"There was no back to the car. If there had been anybody in the back, they would have been flattened. The doors were crumpled and had paint burning off them.

"The driver started screaming to get him out. I jumped on to the top, grabbed him under the arms and hauled him out through the sunroof.

"At the time it seemed the natural thing to do."

Joe and his wife Caroline then waited with the driver, who appeared to be in his late 30s, until the emergency services arrived.

He has not heard from the man whose life he saved but learned from the police he was released after three days in hospital.

He said the driver was badly concussed after the crash and might not even remember being saved.

However, the father-of-two said it was nice to be recognised officially, even though he thought many other people would have reacted in the same way.

Joe said: "I feel very proud to be receiving this award and will gladly accept it because, when people get involved with this sort of thing, it brings it to other people's attention and can make a difference."