SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A crash victim is reaching out to the four men who helped her after the near fatal collision.
A crowd gathered to look at the crash at the intersection of Knights Avenue and Loan Peak Parkway, but only four men stepped forward to help.
A water truck hit Janelle Read's Honda Odyssey van during her trip home from Lone Peak High School.
The impact pushed Janelle's driver side seat beneath the passenger seat while she was still strapped in.
This is when the four men step forward.
"These men did not have to stop. They didn't have to help. They could have waited for the EMT's," said the victim's mother, Stacy Read.
They pull on the driver's side door handle.
It fell off.
The passenger door is locked.
Next they use a rock to smash out the back window.
They found Janelle inside falling in and out of consciousness.
She was trying to move putting her badly broken body at risk.
The men sooth her and hold her still.
"We feel that they are truly our heroes and they were there in her time of need," said Stacy. "They were there when we couldn't be and they were really really great guys," she continued.
Doctors put Janelle into an induced coma for a week.
Her pelvis is essentially crushed, her brain is swelling and she has several internal injuries.
Doctors tell her family she could easily die, but she didn't.
She is home recovering more than a month after the crash.
Janelle says Mike Lamb, Dave Nelson, Rich Stringham and Brandon Reynolds likely saved her life.
"I'm so thankful for them. Nobody else would have stopped," said Janelle.
Janelle expects to walk again in April, but the crash may leave her with a permanent limp.
