LIBERTY, Mo. — A police-issued body-worn camera captured an officer and firefighters rescuing a mother and her 6-month-old daughter Tuesday in Liberty, Missouri.
The woman swerved off the road and landed in Rush Creek near the intersection of Route B and Route H.
Watch the full body camera footage in the video player below
“There’s not really a lot going through my head other than trying to get the job done,” said Officer Zach Morrison, who was one of the first people to respond to the crash.
He jumped into the icy creek behind Assistant Chief Tyler Hobbs of the Liberty Fire Department.
“It was cold with the temperatures, but you don’t really think about that,” Hobbs admitted. “With us, we all have a job to do and that’s what we’re trained to do.”
The SUV was on its side in the creek. The woman was partially submerged in the water in the driver’s seat. The baby was in a car seat in the back on the passenger side, safely out of the water.
Morrison used a saw to carve a hole in the car’s windshield. He and firefighters were able to pull the woman out of the car.
“We just tried to talk her through it as best we could and help her remain calm,” Morrison said. “She did pretty good at handling that.”
Next, Morrison took off his bulletproof vest and body camera to climb into the car through the hole in the windshield and rescue the baby. Morrison handed the little girl to Captain Josh Lance.
Both the mother and baby are alive and well. Morrison said neither of them had to spend the night at the hospital.
“It could’ve been much worse,” said Lance. “That’s one of the things we do when we go back to the [fire] station is play those what-if scenarios. What if it was worse, so if it happens again, we know exactly what we’re going to do.”
Lance recommends drivers keep a window-punch tool in their car to help break the glass and escape when a car’s door won’t open.
All three men are fathers and said thinking about the baby trapped in the car motivated them.
“My dad instincts kicked in,” Morrison said. “Once I found out there was a 6-month-old baby in the backseat, that was a big priority of mine. I wanted to do whatever we could to get inside the vehicle.”
Hobbs’ daughter was riding along on the fire truck Tuesday as part of an internship with a high school career program. He wonders if she’ll have a future at the fire department too.
———
KSHB 41 reporter Charlie Keegan covers politics on both sides of the state line. If you have a story idea to share, you can send Charlie an email at charlie.keegan@kshb.com.
