A Mountain View High School assistant principal died in a fiery crash Wednesday, October 4th 2006, afternoon despite efforts by passersby to reach him seconds before the car burst into flames.

Randy Fout, 55, of Nampa, worked at the Meridian school. He was driving west on Victory Road toward McDermott Road in his 1972 Volkswagen Beetle when he crashed with a Dodge pickup pulling a trailer heading south on McDermott.


The impact pushed Fout's car into a power pole.


"There were other guys there, fellow truck drivers right beside helping me," said Mark Prater of Marsing, who along with others witnessed the crash then tried to help. "We couldn't get him out and then it got too hot to where we would have gotten hurt."


Fout was pronounced dead at the scene.


Witnesses said the driver of the pickup ran from the scene. Idaho State Police would not release information about other occupants of the truck late Wednesday.


News of Fout's death made its way to his school community Wednesday. Clark said Fout's son called school officials after learning of his father's death.


"He is a huge loss to kids. He provided valuable leadership and was a terrific role model," said Linda Clark, superintendent of Meridian Public Schools.


For a number of years Fout was the American government teacher at Meridian High School and had been the government teacher at Mountain View. He recently became an assistant principal at Mountain View.


Clark said Fout was instrumental in the creation of the senior project, in which students spend much of their year studying a specific issue and then presenting a written and oral report.


He also wrote a grant that gave $1.6 million to Mountain View and Meridian for development of small learning communities, which provide a way to make large high schools seems less intimidating.


While police declined to release specific details about the incident, they did say the man who fled the scene had not been located late Wednesday. They also did not release the man's name.


Prater said he saw four people in the pickup and that the truck had a name of a drywall company on it.


"The driver was hurt pretty good. He had some serious facial stuff," he said. "I didn't actually see him run. I said 'Hey, where did the other guy go?' "


Witnesses said the three passengers did not leave.


Later Wednesday, as Prater described the scene, he said he was still in shock about what he witnessed. It was the worst crash he had ever seen, he said.


"I felt pain for him and anguish for him and so much adrenaline," Prater said. "I was thinking 'Oh my God, what has happened here?
What have I witnessed?' "


The impact of the Volkswagen splintered the power pole, Prater said. Both doors of the Volkswagen were "bashed in" and couldn't be opened, Prater said. The man Prater said he tried to pull from the car never responded.


Smoke poured from the car as Prater "broke out what was left of the window and tried to pull him out. Then it burst into flames."