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LAYTON — The husband and father of a family hit by a car Tuesday in Layton reflected on the crash the day after, crediting miracles that saved his wife and young children.
Andrew Ponson said the first miracle was that his family survived. He and his wife Bridgette work at Layton Christian Academy and Ponson had just left school when he watched police and ambulances speed past him. He thought nothing of it.
Then he said his phone started ringing.
"It's a name that would not be calling me," Ponson said. "I realized all those cops and the ambulances were for me; something happened to my family."
As he drove back to the school, he described the moments that followed.
"This is like the closest thing to hell on earth as you can describe," Ponson said.
His small family was not OK. His wife was leaning against the car. Ponson said she looked "beaten up." His 2-year-old son was on the ground with blood on his face. Someone at the scene was holding his 3-year-old daughter.
"You just feel helpless and hopeless. It's just the worst feeling," Ponson said. But then, in his words, a second miracle was the people at the scene.
"They came and introduced life and they introduced love and hope and peace into this scenario with their generosity, their kindness and compassion," Ponson said.
Related:
'I didn't grasp the realness of the situation': Students, airman relive Layton rescue
The group of around 20 students and an airman from the nearby Hill Air Force Base are sharing their account of rescuing a mother and her two young children who were pinned underneath a car.A senior airman and a group of roughly 20 teens quickly worked together to pull the car off of Ponson's wife and son, who had become pinned under the car. Ponson knows the teens.
"They saved my family and I don't know if I'll be able to keep my composure the next time I see them," Ponson said. It was an emotional day for him.
"I have wept numerous times today in the quiet moments," Ponson said.
His small family is battered and bruised, but alive.
"Today I'm celebrating life. I'm celebrating the connection to the friendships that I've reconnected with and in this during all the grief there is hope, there is life."
