A baby is expected to make a full recovery and two Fort Worth police officers are being hailed as heroes after saving the infant, who was pinned under an overturned car after a crash on Texas’s Interstate 30 on Thursday morning.
Fort Worth police said in a social media post that Sgt R Nichols and officer E Bounds responded to a crash around 9.30am where a woman and an infant had been in a collision that caused the infant to be ejected from the vehicle.
Body camera footage shared Friday on social media by the Fort Worth police department shows an officer running toward the overturned car and beginning to search for the child as a distraught woman can be heard in the background yelling for her baby.
“Hey, we need to move the car. I think the baby’s under there,” the officer can be heard saying.
The officer rallied other motorists who had stopped at the scene to help him lift the car.
“Keep moving, keep moving,” the officer urges them as the car is lifted just enough for him to grab the child’s leg and pull it to safety.
The child was unresponsive, but one officer said he felt a pulse. They attempted to get the baby to take a breath, with one officer using his fingers to push on the child’s chest. The baby eventually began to make noises and then started to cry.
Police said both the mother and child were in stable condition and expected to make a full recovery.
They did not say what led to the crash or share details on any injuries.
Texas law requires children younger than eight and shorter than 4ft 9in to be secured in a child passenger safety seat system while in a vehicle.
“Although this video may be extremely difficult to watch, it is an important example of the kinds of situations that our police officers may come across while performing their duties,” the department said in its post.
Police chief Eddie Garcia in a social media post referred to the child as a “little angel” and praised the officers for their heroism. “Not quite sure a better example of PROTECT and SERVE, exists,” Garcia said.
“We are beyond proud of the life saving actions performed by Sgt Nichols and Officer Bounds for their bravery and quick response to this terrible scene. We are also grateful to the Fort Worth citizens who saw someone in danger and, without hesitation, assisted our officers,” read the post from Fort Worth police.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
