PROVO, Utah (ABC 4 News) - A 2-year-old girl who was run over in Provo was rescued after her father and 2 good Samaritans lifted the vehicle off her.
The accident happened in the parking lot of little Renée Pulley’s apartment complex.
Amazingly, the toddler suffered no serious injuries.
Renee's father Michael is talking about the sheer terror he felt.
"It’s an indescribable feeling I mean the terror that goes through your mind... I mean, it plays over and over in my head and it's not something that I would wish upon anybody," he said.
Michael said it was a normal Sunday evening. Renee was playing outside, their neighbor Shirlene Shapiro was coming home with her two children in the van. As she rounded the corner into the parking lot, the unimaginable happened.
"She hadn't noticed my daughter playing in the driveway and I happened to turn as she hit her and it just sucked her right under the car," Pulley said.
He was standing outside with Shirlene's husband, Levi. They immediately sprung into action.
"I don't know if I ran or jumped me just I don't even remember what happened it happened so fast, I just remember being on the ground," Pulley said.
People swarmed the van trying to figure out how to save Renée. That's when neighbor Clark Waldron came up with a plan.
"The easiest thing for me was if we all got together and lifted the can then someone would be able to get her out," Waldron said.
The three men grabbed hold of the front of the van, and lifted with all their might. They got it off the ground just enough for Renée to crawl out. Shapiro says this has been really hard on his wife Shirlene.
"It was devastating for my wife, and this isn't, yeah, it's hard," he said.
But, the understanding from their friend and neighbor, Michael, is things a little easier on the Shapiro’s.
"I just feel grateful to have the neighborhood come together the way... The way they did," Pulley said.
And that camaraderie paid off. Renee is recovering in the hospital and is expected to be just fine. Renee went in for surgery Monday to get skin grafts on some of her scrapes. Remarkably, she didn't break a single bone and is expected to go home on Wednesday.
