SAN ANGELO, Texas -- Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, officers rescued an 8-month-old baby girl from a wrecked single cab pickup at the intersection of South Bryant Boulevard and South Jackson Street Oct. 9.
On their way to morning physical training, 2nd Lts. Andrew Lim and Emily Bohnenkamp, 315th Training Squadron students, spotted a tractor-trailer in the middle of the intersection. When they also saw a crushed Chevrolet S-10 at the scene, they decided to investigate.
Lim hurried to the driver’s side door to find a woman behind the wheel. Unable to pry the door open, he reached over from the passenger’s side to check her pulse.
He made an unexpected discovery.
A baby sat in a car seat hidden beneath the passenger’s airbag, Lim said.
Having been trained as an emergency medical technician, Lim confirmed that the mother had no pulse. He then checked the infant for signs of life.
“The baby wasn’t really reacting or anything at first,” he said.
But as he worked to rescue the child, she started crying.
Lim wanted to keep the baby immobilized. However, the seat would not budge, and the cab began filling up with smoke, he said.
“My life kind of flashed before my eyes,” he said.
In fear that the truck would catch fire and kill them both, Lim pulled the baby out of the trapped car seat and quickly moved her away from the vehicle.
While Lim assessed the situation, Bohnenkamp called 911.
“I (also) tried to talk to the truck driver who was walking around in shock,” Bohnenkamp said.
While the mother died at the scene, according to a San Angelo Police Department news release, an ambulance transported the infant to Shannon Medical Center with undisclosed injuries.
FAST FACT:
According to a National Safety Council study released this year, more than half of the passengers killed in vehicle accidents in 2012 were not wearing seat restraints. When used properly, seat restraints reduce the rick of fatal injury to passengers in the front seat by 45 percent.