x
Breaking News
More () »

UPDATE: Strangers who helped crash victim plan to connect later this week

"All she keeps telling me is 'Find the people who saved me because if it hadn’t been for them, I wouldn’t be here.'"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — UPDATE: After our story ran on Monday, Jan. 21, a couple of people reached out to First Coast News the same day and said they helped the woman in the crash. They plan to meet later this week so that the victim can thank them in person.

ORIGINAL STORY:

The driver involved in a crash that backed up lanes on Interstate 10 Thursday morning is in the hospital in critical condition. 

Her family told First Coast News she has a fractured skull, jaw fractures and a bleed in the brain. Family members said it’s a miracle she’s alive.

It happened just a couple of miles from the Chaffee exit on I-10. The family of Nikki Bauer said she was driving in the eastbound lanes when she lost control and her pick up truck flipped multiple times. 

Bauer's wife thinks the only reason she’s alive is thanks to the kindness of strangers.

"All she keeps telling me is, 'Find the people who saved me because if it hadn’t been for them, I wouldn’t be here,'" Bauer's wife, Samantha Walker, said. 

Walker got the call from a witness to the crash just before 10 a.m. 

"A nurse was the one that called me, that got on scene that was going to work that morning," Walker remembered. "She was one of the first people to arrive on scene before EMS did, before the cops did.”

"Something happened to the back of the vehicle we don’t exactly know, and she ended up at about 70 miles an hour, lost control of it, and it flipped three times, and it flipped into the median – thank God not into incoming traffic, it stopped," Walker explained. "When she landed her head was pinned between the vehicle and the ground.”

Walker said bystanders gathered to flip the truck over and get Bauer out of it before first responders got there. 

“I don’t know all of the people there, but I know a bunch of them were truckers, some headed westbound, some headed eastbound," she said. "Had they not done it, she wouldn’t be here. We’re all extremely grateful she’s still here, because she was almost not. I’m telling you, we can’t thank them enough for everything they did.” 

Walker is hoping some of those bystanders will reach out to First Coast News to connect with her. 

Bauer is recovering in the ICU at UF Health. She is scheduled to have surgery Tuesday, according to family. There is a GoFundMe for medical expenses. To donate, click here.

Before You Leave, Check This Out