Woman Rescues 2 In Serious Accident On Route 70

CHERRY HILL, NJ — Catherine Gray’s parents always told her she never thinks before she does things. On Wednesday, Gray’s quick actions may have saved a pair of lives.

Gray was driving to Staples Wednesday morning when she saw a car flip over in front of her on Route 70. At first, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Is this real? Am I really seeing what I’m seeing?,” Gray thought as she recalled the incident for Patch Friday afternoon. As she got closer, she could see the back tire was still spinning. “That’s what triggered for me that this is real.”

Gray slowed to a stop, making sure no one was driving behind her. Then, without thinking, she jumped out of her car and ran toward the scene of the smoking car lying on its roof in the middle of the busy highway.

“I ran across Route 70 and dove on the ground to help whoever was inside get out,” Gray, 31 of Pennsauken, said. “I was met by another gentleman who helped me get the mother out.”

There was also a little boy in the car. He was being pinned down by his car seat. “He was terrified,” Gray said. “He was hurt, confused and disoriented.”

They were able to rescue the child from his seat. The entire ordeal went down as Gray was dodging traffic. The street had not yet been blocked off because no one had called the police, although one man did stop to help direct traffic. At this point, Gray called 911.

“Once I knew they were safe, I had to get back through traffic because my car was still parked in the middle of Route 70,” Gray said.

At that point, the area was so busy, she was unable to get back to the scene, so she went about the rest of her day. She didn’t know how the mother and her child had made out until she received a message from one of their family members through Facebook, telling her they were recovering.

As for acting without thinking first, Gray says that’s just who she is. She also noted the people driving by the scene as it was unfolding, taking pictures with their phones without stopping to help.

“I don’t have it in me to do that,” Gray said. She took pictures of the scene before she left, and shared them on Facebook to make a point, she said.

“Hearing that child scream for his mother like that, and seeing her in complete agony and disarray, broke my heart,” she wrote in her post. “I’m scraped up, I’m sore and I’m shaken up. But I’m thankful no one lost their lives. A Sincere Thank You to the other gentleman who ran over and the gentleman helping block traffic so we weren’t run over. It amazed me that 95 percent of people just stared and looked instead of helping me and the other gentleman who ran over to help me pull her.”

“I’m literally crying reading this,” one person commented on her post. “Thank God you were there. Not too long ago driving with my husband we witnessed a crash with two little ones in the back seat. My husband was the only one to run over to help them and see if they were ok while I stayed with our baby and called 911. When I got rear ended pregnant with Antonia in the back not a single person pulled over to help me. It was a disgrace instead I was getting honked at to move over.”

A childhood friend shared her post to a community Facebook page, and many people called her a hero and a brave soul.

"A huge shout out to my high school friend Cathy who acted instead of just standing by to help try to free a lady and her son in a bad car accident on Route 70 in Cherry Hill this morning," Dana Hoffman wrote. "Way to go Cathy and unknown man. These kinds of things are the things that are worth sharing."

Cherry Hill police said Route 70 east was closed just past Cornell Avenue due to this incident for the majority of the day on Wednesday, but didn’t provide details of how the accident occurred. A spokesperson for the police department wasn’t immediately available on Friday.