A student competing in an auto body challenge at the World Skills regional competition in Calgary came across a real world challenge on Friday morning and passed with flying colours.
Jessica Anderson, 18, was ready to compete in a challenge of rebuilding a bumper when someone came in saying there was a serious rollover that happened just outside their door on Centre Ave. and 19 St.
A T-bone collision in the intersection sent a minivan rolling and two kids were stuck inside the van that was flipped on its side.
The baby, about four months old, was crying.
Since Anderson was wearing heavy duty gloves with all the glass strewn on the street – and also because she was the smallest person around – she went in to the flipped vehicle to rescue the child.
First she went in and rescued the infant girl who was buckled into her carseat.
Her older brother, 4, was also inside and in shock. The father, who was driving, was out of the vehicle and bleeding from his face.
“Nobody else could fit back in so I went back in and pulled out the little boy who was wrapped around the seatbelt. So I had to untangle him and pull him out,” she said minutes later.
“I was thinking I got to get these kids out of here.”
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Only the father suffered minor injuries.
“The little boy kept thanking me,” said Anderson. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
EMS spokesman Stuart Brideaux said the father, a man in his thirties, was taken to hospital in stable condition. “There was considerable damage to the vehicle but fortunately both the children were in the proper carseats,” said Brideaux.
The carseats kept the kids safe in the wreckage.
“It is an excellent reminder that children should be in carseats that are properly installed for their correct, size, weight and age,” said Brideaux.
“If a vehicle is going to be heaved onto its side or its roof, it’s very, very important the children are secured properly.”
Police are investigating the collision and whether one of the vehicles involved ran a red light.
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