Before paramedics and firefighters arrived at the scene of a deadly big rig crash in La Mesa, Good Samaritans who witnessed the incident rushed to the rescue.
A mother and her daughter were killed in the crash Wednesday afternoon, six others were injured, including a 6-year-old girl who suffered a broken neck.
A big rig lost control and crashed into two vehicles on the State Route 125.
Andrew Norris was on his way to work when he saw what happened and ran to help.
"I literally was 150 feet from the accident. I was there within a minute of when it happened," Norris told NBC 7.
Norris said at first he thought it was just a jackknifed truck, but then he heard screaming.
"She was jumping up and down, screaming, 'My daughter, my daughter.' I could hear her from my car, so I put my car in park and ran across and jumped over the k-rail," he said.
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Norris told NBC 7, the mother of the two children, six and 4-year-old girls, in the SUV was crying out for help.
The younger daughter suffered minor injuries but the 6-year-old Kristina, was not breathing.
Norris said a nurse was performing CPR on the little girl.
He said he then went to check on the people in the green Chevy Aveo. Two sailors were there, trying to help 29-year-old Jennifer Campbell who had been in the car with her mother.
Both were killed in the crash.
Norris said he opened the cab of the truck and saw the passenger in the back and the female driver on the floor.
"She was screaming," he said. "She looked like she was ok. She was screaming, moving, trying to get up, but she couldn't. She was in total shock. When I reached over to grab the guy, he kind of reached out and grabbed his head, and I figured he moved enough, he's ok."
Norris added there were many who stopped to help, but he wants to focus attention on the people who made a real difference.
"The real point I want to make is the Navy guys and the nurse that actually saved Kristina's life--those are the real people that made the difference in what happened," Norris said. "Because if those two nurses didn't stop and those two Navy guys, Kristina probably wouldn't have made it."
The father of two said the incident will stay with him forever.
"It affected me deeply, on multiple levels. I can see my daughters’ faces in Kristina’s face," he said.
He said he is heartbroken for the families of the victims.
