A crash alert on an app was the first sign Reality Molina got that something had gone badly wrong.
Her husband, Zach Seaback, 23, of Grimes County, Texas, was seriously injured in a rollover crash on Highway 6 in Brazos County on June 17, according to KBTX. Seaback said he is alive because strangers stopped to help him after the wreck.
“I don’t remember much. I had an insane concussion,” Seaback told the outlet. “I looked up and saw an 18-wheeler, and I tried to swerve around it. And I clipped his tire … I’m not really 100 percent positive what happened. And then I rolled.”
After the crash, Seaback said he was trying to get out of the wreckage and feared oncoming traffic.
“I didn’t know if I was on the highway or not,” he recalled. “So, I was scared of a car coming back and hitting me from behind again. And so, I crawled my way to the back of the car, and those awesome people were there waiting for me and … really took care of me in that situation.”
He said a group of good Samaritans stayed with him until medics arrived.
“There were a lot of really nice people who gave me a lot of comfort in that situation,” Seaback said. “Because I didn’t know what was going on with me. I just knew there was blood everywhere. And everybody was just keeping me calm. … I kept telling them, you know, my head hurts, my head hurts. And they just kept telling me, you know, you were going to be okay.”
Seaback said he believes the bystanders kept his head elevated and tried to slow the bleeding before EMS arrived.
“I believe they kept my head up,” he said. “I believe they … tried to stop the bleeding as much as possible. I kept going in and out, though.”
Molina said she learned about the crash through a Life360 alert.
“We have Life 360, so I got the ‘Zach, he has been detected in a car crash,’ ” Molina said. “And, I was like, well, that can’t be real.”
She called his phone, and after two rings, a stranger answered.
“Someone picked up, and they said … ‘Well, I’m assuming you’re his wife … your husband’s been in a car wreck,’ ” Molina recalled. “And so, I was like, okay, is he, is he okay? Is he alive? You know, and they were like, ‘We’re getting him out of the car, he’s alive … he’s bleeding from his head, but … he’s alive.’ ”
Molina said it took her about 15 minutes to get to the scene, and Seaback was already in an ambulance when she arrived. She said one of the bystanders stayed on the phone with her during the drive.
“The entire 15 minutes it took me to get there, I was on the phone with a man. And I don’t know his name,” she said. “I stole comfort in those 15 minutes when I was rushing there, so … I am very grateful for him, and I really hope he reaches out so I can talk to him.”
Later, Molina said she found a purple jacket in the wrecked vehicle that did not belong to the couple. She believes someone may have used it to protect Seaback from broken glass as bystanders pulled him from the vehicle.
Seaback said the help he got may have saved his life.
“It took the ambulance 20 minutes to get there,” he said. “So, in 20 minutes, I would probably not have been alive if, you know, [they] stepped in and did everything they did to help me.”
He remains hospitalized and said he is still facing another surgery.
“[Doctors] said that I probably lost about half of my blood,” Seaback said. “I have to get another surgery on my head. They may have to take skin from my leg … to do a skin graft if they’re not able to get the skin back together.”
Molina said staff at the hospital told her Seaback’s survival was remarkable.
“He had no broken bones,” she said. “I can’t tell you how many doctors and cops and nurses told me that it was a miracle that … he even made it out.”
Now, the couple hope to find the people who stopped to help, including the man who answered Seaback’s phone and stayed on the line with Molina, so they can thank them in person.
“They really saved my life,” Seaback said.
Read more from People.
