‘Here for a reason’: Man pulls mom, 3 kids to safety after car flips into NC creek

HICKORY, N.C. — A good Samaritan is being credited with pulling a mother and three children out of an overturned SUV.

The crash happened around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday along 29th Avenue Drive Northeast in Hickory. The SUV went off the road and overturned, ending up in a creek.

When Channel 9′s Dave Faherty arrived, he could only see headlights and a creek nearby.

Both firefighters and the highway patrol told Faherty the family was not hurt in the crash. They said with all the rain Tuesday, the road was slick.

Santi Oviedo, the man who saved the family, said he could hear the children and the mother calling for help as he got closer to the vehicle. He said several drivers didn’t stop, instead taking cell phone videos as they drove by.

“We get out and we don’t really know what is going on,” Oviedo said. “Nobody is stopping, so we had to go up there ourselves and we heard some yelling and banging on the door.”

Faherty spoke with Oviedo Wednesday morning. He said he was heading to get something to eat with his cousin when he spotted the overturned SUV. He said he and his cousin ran over to help, climbing up onto the car and getting the door open. That was when he learned there were three children and a woman inside.

Working with his cousin, he says they pulled each person out one at a time and got them up to the road.

Firefighters said when they arrived, the children and the woman were all safely out.

“At first I was a little in shock. I was like ‘is this really happening,’ you know, I’m here for a reason,” Oviedo said. “I’ve been in my own situations and I’ve had people there luckily to help me at those times. I feel like I was there at the right time and had to help them.”

Oviedo said it was too dark to tell if water from the swollen creek got into the SUV. He said he was glad he and his cousin could be there to help and didn’t think their actions were heroic.

“I wouldn’t say hero but nobody else stopped. Just glad we were there to help,” he said. “I feel like anybody should have done that.”

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