Good Samaritans Band Together to Help an Unconscious Driver Drifting Into Oncoming Traffic

Strangers jumping out of their cars to help a driver who lost control during a medical episode

Good Samaritans Rushed Into Traffic to Save Driver, Video Shows

Good samaritans saved a driver

It was a frightening scene in Boynton Beach, Florida when a car drifted across a busy intersection into oncoming traffic. The driver was slumped over the steering wheel and experiencing a medical emergency.

A coworker who knew the driver sprinted to help her, but she couldn’t stop the runaway car alone.

She waved to other drivers, and five others hopped out of their vehicles to lend a hand. Together they were able to stop the car.

A woman found a dumbbell in her car and gave it to one of the guys, who used it to smash a window and open the door as calls to 911 started pouring in.

Boynton Beach Police were appealing for all the good Samaritans to come forward to meet the very grateful lady they saved.

At a ceremony hosted by the Police department, Laurie Rabyor met many of her rescuers for the first time, including the woman who grabbed a dumbbell from her car and the man who used it to break one of Rabyor’s car windows. (Rabyor returned the dumbbell.)

The rescuers were almost all strangers, except for Jannette Rivera, who works with Rabyor and noticed that Rabyor’s car was drifting through the crosswalk.

Rivera decided within seconds that something was wrong, put her car in the park, ran into traffic, and yelled for help, rousing others to assist.

“I thank God for that woman,” Rabyor of West Palm Beach said. “I can never repay her.”

Rabyor, a seamstress, says she took medication on an empty stomach and became dehydrated.

“That must be when I passed out because I hit a curb, and then the car turned. That’s when it went into traffic. I don’t even remember leaving work,” Rabyor said.

She said she had been hospitalized for two days after the rescue because she had overhydrated while preparing for the procedure and depleted her electrolytes and other essential minerals.

Rabyor said she had been sitting with Rivera at the ceremony, and when the video of the rescue played, they talked about the man in the hat who had run out in front of the car. Then the man sitting in front of her, Marko Bartolone, turned around and said that he was that man. Rabyor said her introductions to the other good Samaritans played out in a similar fashion.

Rivera, who also lives in West Palm Beach, said that her boss had contacted the police to see if they had footage of the rescue because the company wanted to honor the people who had helped. She said that when her husband and daughter saw the video, they told her they were proud, but also that she needed to be more careful.

Rivera said she told them, “If I would have lost my life, well then you would be proud of me because I still saved a life.”

U.S. Staff Sergeant Juan Chavez also ran through traffic to help. “Honestly, I just saw somebody that needed help and I just rushed to it. I didn’t really think too much of it. I didn’t really think too much about my safety at that point,” Chavez said.

Strangers Band Together to Help Save Unconscious Driver

The traffic camera footage shows Sergeant Chavez, in fatigue, running across the intersection as vehicles continued to drive through it. He got in front of Rabyor’s car to help stop it, went back across the intersection to get his car, then returned.

“It’s amazing,” he added, “how everyone came together to help someone that was in need without even knowing the person.”

Michael Edelstein identified himself at the ceremony as the person who had run in front of the car and also had tried unsuccessfully to punch through one of its windows. Beyond the main group of six or seven people who surrounded Rabyor’s car, at least 20 others helped by directing traffic, he said.

A little over a minute after Rivera first ran from her car, a man, David Formica, broke open the window of Rabyor’s car with the dumbbell. Another person climbed through the window to unlock the front passenger door, the police said.

The group then pushed the car into a nearby parking lot, where a nurse provided medical attention until the Fire Department arrived, the police said.

The nurse, Robin Fox, was emotional at the ceremony as she played down her role in the rescue. She said that she had come in at the end and taken Rabyor’s pulse.

“It was an honor to see this happen,” she said, “to bear witness in real time to this happening and I’m so glad that everybody gets to see it.”

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