“At first it was slow motion, then it all hit,” Nautica Hall told reporters, recalling the car crash that had happened two days earlier. “It was very scary.”
Hall, 19, had been driving behind her husband Shawn, 21, in Trinity, North Carolina when, speeding around a curve, she suddenly lost control of the car. The young woman, who is 32 weeks pregnant, said that after that, everything was a blur.
“The back part of the wheel hit the back part of the road. I started to spin out, and I hit the ditch head-on, I kind of blacked out from there,” she said.
Meanwhile, her husband was watching everything unfold from his rearview mirror.
“All I remember is I watch it happen, jumped from my car, screamed, ‘baby girl,’ went to her window. I was doing anything to get her out,” he said.
He told reporters that he was able to get Nautica out of the vehicle just before it burst into flames.
“As soon as I got her out of the window and got her in a safe distance, two minutes later the whole car went up in flames,” he said.
“If it wasn’t for a seatbelt she probably would have been thrown from the window,” he added.
Hall also credited her husband for saving her, saying that after the crash, she couldn’t get out because the seatbelt was stuck.
“I didn’t have enough strength to lift myself and get out,” said Hall. “I was terrified I would die at that moment.”
But she wasn’t so much concerned about her own safety, as she was her unborn child’s.
“It was a scary moment altogether,” Hall told ABC affiliate WLOS. “I wasn’t worried about myself, I was worried about my son.”
Thankfully, Doctors at the Cone Health Women’s & Children’s Center confirmed that her baby is okay. They treated her for minor injuries, including a seatbelt burn mark on her neck.
“We’re there for each other. I believe that’s what marriage is for. Saving each other from whatever, it may be emotional stress, family matters, or a burning car,” Shawn said, reflecting on the event.
The couple says they are thankful everyone is okay, and are excited to welcome their son in about six weeks.
