CBS2 Exclusive: Family Recalls Moment Loose Tire Crashed Into Windshield
EDISON, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A family trip turned disastrous when a tire crashed through their windshield on the New Jersey Turnpike, and knocked the mother unconscious.
Delfo Saco was holding his sons extra tight on Monday. He was taking them and his wife Gladys Duman on a trip to Washington D.C. on Friday night. After leaving their home in Elmhurst, the family made it as far as Edison on the turnpike, when something soared through the air and crashed into the passenger side windshield -- aimed straight at Duman's head.
"The last thing I saw was something hitting her face. I didn't really know it was a tire until later on," Saco said speaking exclusively to CBS2's Ali Bauman.
State Police said the tire came loose from a car driving in the opposite direction, flying over the divider.
Saco pulled over and called 911.
"I was holding her head, and telling her please don't move, don't move, and she was trying to move cause she was in pain, and blood was all over her face," he said.
Their two sons weren't injured in the back seat, but there were terrified. As they waited for the ambulance, their mother drifted in and out of consciousness. Her 9-year-old son Justin put on a brave face.
"When they started crying, I asked Justin, you have to help me, you have to be strong and help me with the little one" Saco said. "He actually saw her, and every time I yelled 'don't move,' he yelled 'mom don't move," Saco said.
Duman is still in the hospital with head injuries, a fractured nose, and neck. The family invited CBS2's cameras up to see her sleeping peacefully with a neck brace on.
Doctors couldn't say when she will go home.
"She's a fighter, a very strong woman, when this happened it hurt her so much," Saco said.
He's hopeful his wife will recover, but he wasn't so confident on Friday night, when the mother of his two boys slipped into a coma.
"I looked at them, and just thought about it, what am I gonna tell them, how am I gonna tell them what's gonna happen to them," he said.
The family said when Duman woke from her coma on Monday morning, she could not remember the accident, but wanted to. Her memory has been coming back little by little.
Police said the driver whose tire came loose stayed at the scene, and is not facing any charges.
