When a truck driver witnessed a terrible crash, he jumped out of his track and bolted towards the flames that had ensued. Little did he know, his dash cam would capture a miracle.
David Fredericksen, a professional truck driver, was traveling along the I-10 Freeway in Gulfport, Mississippi when he saw the driver of a Lincoln Town Car fail to yield while merging into the 70-mph traffic on the highway. To his horror, the car collided with an 18-wheeler, crashing into the truck’s gas tank, according to ABC News.
Immediately, a fireball formed and black smoke began pouring from the wreck as flames erupted across the highway. “I just caught a glimpse of the front grill of a car that looked like it was going in the wrong direction,” Fredericksen recalled. “It was a pretty big explosion — and then the road, the car, everything — was on fire.”
“Holy cow!” Frederickson’s partner, Walter Letterman, exclaimed. “That guy’s dead, dude.” Frederick feared Letterman was right. But, he had to do something. After stopping his vehicle a safe distance away, Fredericksen grabbed his fire extinguisher and ran towards the horrific highway crash, terrified of what he might find.
When he reached the wreckage, Fredericksen attempted to calm the flames. “When I got out of the truck and I pulled the pin [of his fire extinguisher], I just automatically started praying, ‘God please don’t let me have to deal with somebody halfway burned alive, screaming, or have to see kids in here. I mean I didn’t want to see something like that. My first reaction was that they were dead,” Fredericksen admitted.
But, he was wrong. As Fredericksen fought the fire, something caught his eye. “I saw this little head pop up in the back window, and immediately, I thought, ‘Wow, they’re alive!” he recalled, according to CBN. A 51-year-old woman and a toddler, who was later reported to be the woman’s grandchild, were trapped inside.
“We noticed there was a lady in the front, kicking the front seat – the door, trying to get out, and when we opened the door, I noticed a 1-year-old little girl in the back seat,” Fredericksen recalled. As he tried to help pull the door open, he knew time was running out. “I heard the metal bending. I’m a pretty good-sized guy, and if you watch the video, you can see that I’m struggling pretty hard to get it open,” he said.
Struggling to free the woman and her granddaughter, a desperate Fredericksen continued to pray. Once more, he asked God for divine intervention, then a miracle happened. “At that point, you know, what else could I do?” he said, recalling the feeling of defeat he was experiencing at that moment. “I had never been in a situation like that before.” But, he wasn’t about to give up.
Other motorists came to help, and finally, the door broke free. “Then, in the back seat, that little head, I saw it pop up again, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw some other people showing up, and so I reached into the back seat, and I grabbed the little girl. I reached in and she grabbed me around the neck,” Fredericksen explained. “She was pretty happy when I grabbed her out of there.”
Relieved, he carried the child to safety as others joined in the rescue, helping the toddler’s grandmother escape the wreckage as well. And, it was all just in the nick of time. “We got them both away from the car, and it just went up in flames,” Letterman said. Nothing but the charred metal was left behind.
“I don’t know how we all made it through that,” admitted a tearful Scott Swanson, the man who was driving the truck that was involved in the accident. But, making it out alive wasn’t the only miracle that took place that day. According to police, the unidentified woman and toddler had only suffered minor injuries, thanks to Fredericksen’s quick thinking. But, that’s not all.
As the trucker saved the day, he was also remarkably unscathed. “The car was on fire, and I didn’t burn my hands. It wasn’t hot,” Fredericksen relayed in disbelief, adding that he believes God intervened, using him to help rescue the two victims. “I believe that He protected me and protected them,” he said.
“If I had been twenty seconds sooner, I would have been down the road. If it would have been ten seconds sooner, it would have been me she hit. I’ve never met that lady, but I am just very happy that I was able to help her that day,” Fredericksen explained. “It seemed surreal that they were okay,” he added. “I mean, I didn’t think anyone could survive that, truthfully.”
As he travels highways across the country, David Fredericksen is ready and willing to be used by God again. “When you see something like this, you have no other choice,” Fredericksen said. “When you have a relationship with God, the supernatural happens all the time,” he explained.
“God puts people where they need to be. That little girl — God’s got a purpose for her, and that’s why He protected her that day,” Fredericksen added before concluding, “It just reassures me that, if God needs me and he puts me in front of somebody that needs my help, then I’m going to help them. You’ve just got to listen to God.”
