Car Crash Survivor Reunited With His 'Guardian Angel'
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - A young man near death was plucked from his car by someone he called his "guardian angel." His hero disappeared into the darkness that night, but Monday the two were reunited.
Their lives crossed paths on the Capital City Freeway. Justin Wilson had just wrecked his car. He was trapped - a semi truck would slam into his car.
But not before she got him out.
Sabrina Bucher shared an emotional hug with Wilson on Monday.
"It's so crazy," she said. "I'm happy you're OK."
To understand the emotion behind the embrace, you have to go back to the first time these two strangers met - last Tuesday morning on a stretch of Sacramento freeway.
"Did you see me waving?" Wilson asked his rescuer Monday.
"No. It was dark," she said. "It was like pitch black."
Bucher is an aspiring nurse who did what she felt she had to do.
"It all happened so quick," she said.
After Wilson crashed his car when he fell asleep at the wheel, he was trapped - leg broken, femur snapped - hope was fading as cars zipped on by.
Sabrina, a young mother of two, was the only one to stop. After paramedics arrived, she went on her way and Justin never got the chance then to say thank you.
"I think I would've died that night if you hadn't stopped," Justin told her Monday.
"By the time I got there and ran and got you out, it was like 'snap.' It was just crazy," she said.
Crazy because seconds after Sabrina pulled Justin out of his car, the semi truck slammed into his wrecked vehicle.
"I thought we were going to die," she said.
Her nervous laughter matches her angelic smile and her giving yet humble spirit.
"Do you realize that he would've died if you didn't do what you did?" CBS13's Tony Lopez asked her.
"I mean, yeah, I do believe that truck would've ... yeah, I do," she said. "I mean, it's a little overwhelming. It really is."
Justin's family was overwhelmed with joy to meet his rescuer Monday. They thanked her and gave her flowers.
Flowers for a hero who emerged from the shadows, who stopped in the darkness, giving light and life to a young man who's still around thanks to what she did.
"I just wanted to say thank you," Justin said. "I really think you saved my life that night."
There is no doubt Sabrina is going to be one heck of a nurse. She's currently trying to get into nursing school.
She exchanged numbers with Justin and his family. They plan to stay in touch - forever linked by what happened on a stretch of Sacramento freeway.
