Watch the dramatic video of drivers trying to stop a runaway car on a busy Florida road
As a car rolled slowly and aimlessly across a busy intersection, other people in traffic sensed something was wrong.
This was no ordinary case of another bad driver in South Florida.
It turns out the driver of the wayward car was slumped over the wheel from a medical emergency.
A video shared by Bonyton Beach police shows a quick-thinking work colleague who saw what was happening in traffic from her nearby car.
Here is what the video shows:
After seeing the problem, a driver jumps out of her car and signals for help.
That sets off a wave of other good Samaritans who bolt from their vehicles to rush to the rolling car in the middle of the intersection.
They try to stop it with their hands.
The group teams up to push the car to a parking lot and stays with the ill driver until paramedics arrive.
Police in Boynton Beach, south of West Palm Beach, say their heroics saved the sick driver’s life.
The police department released the dramatic video of the road rescue this week to reunite the group of do-gooders.
“We are sharing this video in hopes of learning the identities of all the strangers who came together to save this woman’s life,” the department said in a statement. “They are heroes and we want to bring them back together at the police department to recognize them and meet the woman they rescued.”
It worked. The department said a group of rescuers will meet the woman — who has since recovered — at the police department Friday.
According to police, the drama started on the afternoon of May 5 as the woman drove on Woolbright Road near Congress Avenue.
Laurie Rabyor told CBS12 News that she doesn’t remember the ordeal, but is grateful for the people who saved her.
“Thank you so much. I don’t know how to thank you,” Rabyor told the station. “I wish I was a millionaire, so I could buy y’all a boat.”
The video shows several people running up to the moving car in order to stop it. A woman grabbed a dumbbell from her car and a man used it to smash the rear passenger’s side window.
Working together, they managed to get the car in park.
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Juan Chavez was one of the people who stopped to help, WPTV reported.
“She wasn’t responsive initially,” Chavez told the station. “Once we got the door open, she became more responsive.”
Davita Peele, who works for the U.S. Postal Service, said she had just finished work and was making a stop at Home Depot when she saw the commotion.
She said she saw a woman running through the intersection screaming “’help me, help me.’”
“That’s when I realized something was going on,” she said, adding that instinct took over and she got out of her car to direct traffic to avoid an even worse situation.
“I didn’t know what the situation was, but I saw that woman leaning over [the wheel] and something clicked,” she said. “It can happen to anyone at any given time. We should help each other.”
This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 10:20 AM.
