Two young lives were spared by quick-acting passersby, including a couple from the Rio Grande Valley, who pulled them from a burning vehicle involved in a fatal collision Sunday in Nueces County.
A driver traveling east on FM 665 was reportedly seen driving at an “unsafe speed” and passing multiple vehicles, according to DPS. On that same road, an SUV with two women and two children was heading west when the other driver struck the vehicle head-on.
Both vehicles rolled onto a field and caught fire. Brady Pratt was driving through traffic with his family when his wife caught sight of the smoke.
“We just so happened to be on that road at the same time,” Pratt said.
A lifetime of training had prepared the couple to help in the situation quickly unfolding before them. Pratt is a member of Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue, or BORSTAR. His wife, Jolissa, is a nurse who had just come back from a nine-week work trip to Amarillo.
“We could see people with like a sledgehammer trying to hit the windows out of the other vehicle,” Pratt said describing the scene. His wife, Jolissa, had a better vantage point from the passenger seat. “She was like, I think there’s people in there. You need to go help.”
People were standing around the vehicles as Pratt was approaching.
The single-passenger vehicle was engulfed in flames. A crowd of about five men were standing around the SUV carrying four people.
Amber Madrano, 31, and Jacqueline Espinosa, 23, both from Corpus Christi, were in the front seats. The front of their vehicle was smashed in. Fire in the front hood was beginning to spread. Smoke was building up inside.
First responders were on their way, but it would be about 15 minutes before they got there, Pratt estimated. Time was running out.
Bystanders who noticed two children in the back seats, broke the windows to extract the girls before Pratt reached them.
“It was definitely only a matter of time,” Pratt said after evaluating the situation.
No one was jumping in to pull the children out. Nearly 12 years of training and experience rescuing people, even children, from drowning, heat exhaustion and other dangers compelled Pratt forward.
He went inside the burning car to retrieve the children. Pratt was thinking of his own children, ages 10 months and 13 years old, who were standing nearby. “I would want somebody to do that for me,” he said.
“I went in through the back window to get the little girl,” Pratt said referring to the 8 year-old child. Calmly, the girl initially protested saying, “no, my leg’s broken,” she told Pratt.
The off-duty agent instead pulled out the 2-year-old and went back to carefully extract the older child. Pratt handed her to Jolissa who tended to her injuries, which DPS described as “non-life threatening.”
Fear set in after the girl was out of the car still burning.
“Please don’t leave me,” the 8-year-old exclaimed to Jolissa who was trying to comfort her. The girl was related to the two victims, but her parents were not among them.
Pratt went back inside the vehicle and checked for the women’s pulses but didn’t find any.
Moments later, first responders arrived. The children were taken to Driscoll Children’s Hospital via Halo-Flight. They pronounced the two women dead on the scene.
“While I extend my heartfelt condolences to the loved ones of those who tragically lost their lives, I am extremely proud of the quick action Border Patrol Agent Brady Pratt took in rescuing the two children on Sunday,” said Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings. “Even when off-duty, he utilized his training and remained committed to the service and protection of others.”
Although Pratt has participated in multiple rescues, this was different.
“It’s a whole different experience when you’re off-duty and you do it and you have your family,” he noted.
The family was heading to pick up some furniture and meet the family. Pratt didn’t have any of his standard equipment or communication systems.
“When you’re with your family, you just start thinking like ‘what if?’ What if we were two minutes earlier down the same road?”
One of the children rescued lost her mother in the accident. Though some lives were spared, some will spend the holidays in mourning.
“Be grateful. Nothing is guaranteed,” Pratt said. “Life can change in the blink of an eye. We’re not guaranteed that we’re going to sleep in our bed tonight.”
