‘I am so thankful:’ Jacksonville mom wants to thank good Samaritans that saved her family from crash

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — A Jacksonville mom wants to thank good Samaritans, she said helped save her and her children on Christmas Day.

“They did everything they could to save us, and I just want to thank them, because if it wasn’t for them, I don’t think we would be here,” said Ayanna Montes.

Grateful to be alive, Ayanna Montes and her 3 kids said a miracle happened.

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The family was headed to Kissimmee in central Florida with a car full of presents when they hit a pole on I-95 and crashed into a ditch.

Ayanna said the car’s steering wheel and brakes locked.

“I tried everything in power to stop the vehicle,” said Ayanna. “We were all the way in the left lane on 95. The next thing I know we are crashing into a metal pole, the car flipped 4 times, and we landed in a pond. All we saw was water, all the way submerged up to here.”

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But thanks to strangers who rushed to help them, the family survived the crash that left their car demolished.

“When the shock wore off, I heard my daughter screaming, she’s bleeding everywhere, and my son is screaming and I’m trying to take my seatbelt off and it wouldn’t come off,” said Ayanna.

Body camera footage from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office shows the moments first responders and deputies created a human chain from the car to dry land, to save some of the Christmas gifts inside the car.

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“I just bought their iPhones for Christmas, so I kept trying to look for their phones, their gifts,” said Ayanna.

But it’s not the presents that saved Christmas, Ayanna said it was the kindness of 6 people that stopped to help them before the first responders got there.

“These people just came, and they started getting my kids,” Ayanna said. “They got me out of the car, they put towels on my children, they made them calm down.”

Ayanna said if it was not for the good Samaritans, they might have not made it.

“People like that are amazing because they didn’t have to stop, they could have kept going,” said Ayanna. “All I kept doing was thanking them.”

Forever thankful, Ayanna said we are never promised tomorrow so keep your loved ones close.

Here’s a link to the family’s GoFundMe.

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