NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – A woman involved in the multi-car pileup between Albuquerque and Santa Fe a few weeks ago describes the scary scene. Now, she wants to thank the good Samaritan who helped her family. “Within a second we just crashed into something in front of us,” said Antoinette Cannon.
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Cannon said on June 19, her family was heading north on I-25 when the unthinkable happened. “It just became really dusty. There was zero visibility,” said Cannon.
According to Sandoval County, a dust storm north of San Felipe Pueblo led to a 23-car pileup. Cannon and her family were just a few of the dozens of people involved that day. “My 4-year-old and 9-year-old girls were just hysterically crying. They said mommy you have blood everywhere,” Cannon said.
Cannon said her three kids only suffered seat belt burns from the crash. Her knees, however, went into her dash and were cut up. “My windshield was four or five inches from my face when I opened my eyes. My driver’s side was pushed in, so I was kind of crammed in,” said Cannon.
She called 911 because she smelled gas. “I didn’t know if I could move my lower part of my body, but I knew I needed to get my kids out of the vehicle to safety,” Cannon said.
She knew she couldn’t do it on her own. She started waving her hands hoping someone would see her. That’s when a man came to their rescue. “I told him, ‘Sir gas is leaking out by my feet, I have blood everywhere, I don’t know how bad I’m injured, but please just get my kids out,’” said Cannon.
The man got her kids out and then tried to open her driver’s door, but it wouldn’t budge. “He asked me if I thought I could climb over to the passenger side. I just thought of my kids and I knew that they needed me,” said Cannon.
Cannon pushed herself over to the passenger side. The man helped them into his vehicle across the road until an ambulance came and took them to the hospital. Amidst the chaos, she never got the man’s name. “For him to put his emotions and feelings aside to come and rescue me and my kids means the world to me,” Cannon said.
She still has a long road to recovery, but she’s glad things weren’t worse and wants to thank the good Samaritan for what he did. “He wasn’t involved [in the crash]. He was just a good person,” said Cannon.
Doctors found a hairline fracture on Cannon’s hip, and she needed stitches on one of her hands, but she is recovering.
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