Strangers save woman’s life after icy rollover wreck
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CYPRESS, TX (KTRK) — On this icy Valentine’s Day, Zoe Schmidt has a lot of love to spread.
The Cypress nurse and young mother survived a dangerous crash on icy roads, thanks to three other drivers who stopped to help her.
“I try not to play the ‘what if’ game, and just settle with the gratitude,” Schmidt said after being released from the hospital.
The crash was so dangerous, she can’t even remember most of it.
On Friday morning, Schmidt was driving from her home in Cypress to work in Brenham. The temperature was below 20 degrees, and it had just started to rain. That’s when she hit a patch of ice.
“I spun a full 360, three times and then went nose first,” she explained. “Flipping off the side of the highway, down the hill probably a solid five times, rolling down the hill, and landed in the middle of the feeder road.”
Thankfully, other drivers saw it happen.
“I looked in my rearview mirror, there was a car behind me. We both pulled over,” said Jason Muniz. “I was crying. I was in tears because I didn’t know if anyone was going to survive that crash, it was so bad. Immediately, I called 911.”
Schmidt was wedged sideways, trapped in her destroyed vehicle.
“I had landed in a way that my left arm was hanging out of the shattered driver’s side window,” Schmidt said. “I was flashing my hand, trying to let somebody know, ‘Hey, there’s life inside of here.'”
Muniz held Schmidt’s hand as the other two men used a saw to break through the car.
Working together, the three men were able to lift her out of the vehicle just as she started losing consciousness.
“They wrapped me in blankets, put me in a warm car, and were keeping me awake after the initial shock wore off really quickly, and I started to blackout,” she explained. “The last thing I remember, coherently, is them pulling me through a broken glass window.”
Schmidt was taken to the hospital by ambulance, but was released the next day with a dislocated shoulder and a black eye.
“These people helped me, and they’re the whole reason why my situation is the way it is,” she said. “I never got to tell them thank you.”
Schmidt and Muniz were finally able to connect over social media, but she still hasn’t been able to identify the other two men who helped her survive the crash.
“I’m really indebted to them,” she said. “So I hope I can pay it forward one day.”
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