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Good Samaritan rushes to save teen critically injured in Richmond crash
Henry Lee reports.
Richmond - Alyssa Flores, 17, had just finished her shift at the Target store in Albany on Friday night.
It should have been a quick drive home to Richmond.
"I got worried because it's not like her to be late," said her mother Brandi Flores. She called her daughter's cell phone, but the teen didn't pick up.
William Eberly had just gotten off work as a correctional sergeant at San Quentin Prison and came across a crash on eastbound Interstate 80 near Macdonald Avenue in Richmond.
"Something told me, 'Pull over, make sure everything's OK,' " Eberly said.
He answered the girl's phone and told her mother that Alyssa had been hurt in a three-car collision.
"He said she was alive but she was not doing well. And I could hear her gasping for air," Flores said. Through tears, she added, "He was also saying, 'Alyssa, your mom is here. Your mom. Hang on, Alyssa.'
As Flores and her husband rushed to the scene, the Good Samaritan stayed on the phone and kept Alyssa's airway open. Flores says he's a hero and her "angel on earth."
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"Words will never express what he did to save her. I mean, he's the reason she's here, fighting for her life," Flores said.
Eberly said he isn't a hero.
"No, I just feel like I stopped and helped. That was it," he said.
Eberly said his GPS had told him to take another route because of congestion. But he decided to take his normal route, he says, with the help of "divine intervention."
Alyssa suffered head trauma and underwent surgery at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek.
"She's on a ventilator in the ICU," Flores said. "She's not responding to commands."
A promising life, now on hold. Alyssa is the oldest of four children. She's set to graduate from Hercules High in January. She's taking classes at Contra Costa College in hopes of becoming a child psychologist.
"She's just a sweet person. Everybody that meets her, you meet her one time, you remember her forever," Flores said.
Flores is a pediatric nurse at Kaiser. Her medical background at times makes things challenging.
"Part of it is helping, part of it is hindering, because as a nurse you know, like, what happened," she said.
The California Highway Patrol is trying to determine the cause of the crash. Officers say traffic on the freeway had slowed because of another crash in the opposite direction.
The other drivers stayed on scene, but the CHP is asking for any other witnesses to come forward.
As for Eberly, he said, "I'm hoping for a full recovery, and I'm hoping to meet her under better conditions."
Alyssa's family has set up a GoFundMe.