By Tanasia Kenney
The Charlotte Observer
ROME, Ga. — A Georgia woman says she’s grateful to be alive after she and her young son were saved from a fiery wreck.
Two Rome Police Department officers, with help from some good Samaritans, pulled Samantha Bostick and 4-year-old Liam to safety Wednesday, Nov. 1 after their SUV was involved in a crash and caught fire, police said.
The three-car wreck happened at around 8:30 a.m. at a busy intersession in Rome, per an incident report. Much of the rescue was captured on police body camera video.
“We’re just incredibly grateful,” Bostick told the Rome News Tribune. “It was just a pure blessing that they were there.”
Investigators said Bostick was heading east on Highway 411 when she struck a Freightliner truck that ran a red light. The truck then hit a third vehicle, police said.
Officer Dow Turrentine was helping a fellow officer with an unrelated traffic stop nearby when he heard the crash, according to police. He ran to the scene and saw an SUV had rolled into the roadway and was starting to emit smoke.
The vehicle’s engine compartment soon caught fire and the flames spread to the main cabin — where Bostick and her son were trapped, per the report. All the doors to the vehicle were locked.
Turrentine and two witnesses jumped into action, breaking the SUV’s windows and cutting through the air bags to get the woman and her son out, police said. Once freed, Bostick and her child were moved to a patrol car as they waited for EMS to arrive.
They escaped minutes before the SUV was fully engulfed in flames, police said. Crews with the Rome-Floyd Fire Department arrived soon after and put out the fire.
Bostick was taken to a hospital with a knee injury and is recovery, according to authorities. Her son was taken to the emergency room and later released.
Rome is about 70 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta.
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