I thought what is this . This is not how it was supposed to turn out. Are. Im lester holt and this is dateline. Heres Keith Morrison with trapped. Reporter the road is a snake as it winds away from the coast up through the golden hills. Past the celebrated vineyards and into the central valley. Highway 101. Who among us knows where fate lies waiting . Or why beneath the bridge just south of a town called buellton the concrete is stained a permanent black. People have a sense that it could have been them. Reporter yes, it certainly could have been. But this time it came barrelling out of nowhere for this mother and her little girls. By the end it was changed by the awful thing that remains here. We have two here that cant breathe. Reporter the date was january 12th, 2012. Kelly groefs was taking her two little girls on a special weekend trip. Her newborn milo and her fourth grader sage. Sage the soccer star. Sage the dancer. She borrowed her sisters bmw. Felt safer somehow, more reliabl
We would not have been late. Was it fate . Was it a miracle . Was it in time . I thought what is this . This is not how it was supposed to turn out. This is dateline. Up the golden hill, north into the central valley. Highway 101. None of us knows where fate lies waiting. Beneath a bridge just south of town. People have a sense that it could have been them. Yes, it certainly could have been, but this time, this time the fate that came barrelling out of nowhere was for a young mother and her two little girls. By the time it ended, a whole bridge full of fates was changed and an amazing thing happened. The date was january 12, 2012, 36yearold kelly groves was taking her two little girls on a special weekend trip. Her newborn and her fourth grader, sage. Sage the soccer star, sage the dancer. She borrowed her sisters bmw. It felt safer, more reliable. So she strapped the baby seat in the back and took the two girls . She did. I think sage had asked to sit in the front and carrie thought a
was a big moment, a real relief to know that she was still alive. i remember saying we need to be strong and that these children need your strength. but kelly s strength is fading fast. she s crushed against the driver s side window while at the same time reaching behind to hold up her infant daughter in the car seat. the rescue team gets a harness to kelly but it s little comfort as she stares through the gaping hole beneath her feet. greg knuckle stands by, but feels helpless. she wanted a net. greg, can you give me a net? it was just, having to tell her, i can t. i don t have a net. i wish i had a net right now. i wish we had a net, but i can t. and here she s looking down. and that was hard to tell someone. we re tying up your car right now to hold it stable, okay? we re going to get you out. you re doing good. firefighters stabilize the wreck by tying it down with ropes and begin to pry the car open. they re hoping to create just enough room to pull the family out, but ins
of the bridge and the trailer followed and crushed the car as it was going over the bridge. the 18-wheeler plummets and explodes, instantly killing the driver charles allison jr. but amazingly kelly groves and her two the daughters, 10-year-old sage and 10-week-old milo are alive, trapped inside the twisted wreckage of the car. santa barbara fire department battalion chief and firefighter paramedic greg knuckles are among the first to arrive on scene. when we first went out we thought it was a vehicle accident. we didn t know we had a tractor-trailer that was on fire that went over the car and crushed the car and exploded. you could tell from the radio traffic and the discussions that were happening just how complex the rescue was. and you just sort of knew that it was kind of a different, unique call. but unique only begins to