Eight strangers joined forces to rescue the occupants of an SUV that flipped on its side after a collision in Florida Tuesday, as seen in a dramatic traffic video.
Viral footage released by the Daytona Beach Police Department Wednesday shows a gray SUV blowing through an intersection when it’s struck by an oncoming white SUV.
The impact causes the gray vehicle to spin out and flip onto its right side, with the white SUV coming to a stop nearby.
For a few tense moments, no one emerges from any of the vehicles, but then one by one other cars pull over, and people rush to help, including a passenger from the white SUV involved in the collision.
Within seconds, eight do-gooders line up alongside the overturned SUV, together grab hold of the side of its roof and begin rocking it back and forth.
Then with one final push, they push the vehicle back onto its wheels.
“It was a bit surreal. It happened so fast,” Amy Ridgely, one of the people who took part in the impromptu rescue, told Fox 35.
Ridgely, an Army veteran who served a tour of duty in Iraq, said she did not hesitate when she saw the SUV stuck on its side with people inside.
“As a veteran, I took an oath to protect and defend, and two of the Army values that we live by are personal courage and selfless service. I saw an opportunity to help somebody in need, and I had to go,” Ridgely said.
Local police praised all the good Samaritans, writing in a Facebook post that they embodied “the spirit of Daytona Beach.”
“Thank you to all the helpful passersby who stopped to lend a hand,” cops added.
There were two people traveling in the gray SUV and two others in the white SUV involved in the crash. None of them required hospitalization, and no serious injuries were reported, police told the outlet.
The 31-year-old driver of the gray vehicle that wound up overturned was later cited for allegedly running a red light, according to officials.
