Two Florida siblings are being hailed as heroes after jumping into a watery ditch to save a couple and their 11-day-old baby, who were trapped inside their wrecked SUV.
Aaron Allen and his sister, Jolisa Jones, were driving their Ashley Furniture delivery truck in Tampa on Friday morning when they saw a white Chrysler side-swipe a couple’s Toyota RAV 4 on I-75, FOX 13 reported. The car skidded, landing upside down in a ditch filled with water.
Siblings Jolisa Jones and Aaron Allen jumped into action after seeing a car side-swipe another vehicle on the highway, causing it to crash. (Images courtesy of FOX 13)
Trapped inside were Thomas and Diana Windsor, who were on their way home from a doctor’s appointment, according to ABC Action News. The couple’s infant daughter was also inside, dangling upside down from her car seat.
Luckily, the siblings were close by and wasted no time jumping into action.
“I saw that water was seeping into the car, where it was turned upside down,” Allen told the station. “We tried to break the windows, but that didn’t work. So the only thing I could think of was to flip the car over.”
“So I told my sister to help me so we could flip it over to its side,” he continued. “So what happened is after we flipped it over to the side, I took my shirt off and wrapped it around my fist and I used my fist to break the windshield off.”
Allen and Jones suffered a few injuries during the rescue, as they rushed to get the couple and their daughter to safety. Allen said glass from the windshield tore off a chunk of his skin and ripped tendons in his arm. Meanwhile, his sister suffered injuries to her fingers.
Thomas and Diana called the siblings their “angels” who happened to be in the right place at the right time. Diana recalled the near-death incident, remembering the moment they felt the car start to shift in the pond.
“We knew someone was trying to lift the car up and my initial thought was ‘there’s no way they are going to lift this car on its side’” Diana told ABC Action News.
Allen said the sight of Thomas curled up around his daughter inside the wrecked car made him think of his own daughter.
“If I was in that situation, I would want someone to come to my rescue, honestly,” he said. “I would want someone to help me.”
The Windsors and their baby escaped the crash unharmed, but their daughter was still taken to a hospital to be examined, according to FOX 13.
Florida Highway Patrol is still searching for the driver who caused the crash.
Watch more in the video below.
