Crime & Safety

Dramatic Video: Rescuers on Saving Teacher, Kids from Dangling Car

Emergency workers speak out on Good Morning America.

 Emergency workers and Navy Seebees who rescued a San Juan Capistrano mother and her two children as her wrecked car dangled from a bridge said today on Good Morning America that they set aside their emotions to engineer the harrowing rescue.

The dramatic rescue unfolded Thursday afternoon in Buellton when a big-rig truck rear-ended the BMW driven by 36-year-old Kelli Groves, a first grade teacher at Del Obispo Elementary School in San Juan Capistrano, as it traveled north on the 101 Freeway, knocking the car through a guardrail and sending the truck flying off the bridge into a creek 100 feet below, where it burst into flames.

After being pulled from the vehicle, Groves and her children, Sage, 10, and Milo, 10 weeks, were hospitalized with minor to moderate injuries.

Find out what's happening in San Juan Capistranowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Among the rescuers was Ray Navarro, fire chief at the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. Navarro appeared on Good Morning America to talk about the harrowing ordeal.

"Our first priority was life safety, and that for firefighters, and for the occupants on the car," Navarro told ABC.

Find out what's happening in San Juan Capistranowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Inside the car, which was damaged beyond recognition, mother and daughter can be seen struggling to free themselves as rescue workers tirelessly fought to rescue them.

Watch the amazing video here.


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