Gilbert mom holds kids 'extra tight' after near-death experience in fiery US 60 crash
The ordeal lasted a few minutes, but Aymee Ruiz is still reeling from confronting a likely demise in flames after a concrete mixer crashed into her truck on U.S. 60.
"I'm gonna burn to death in here, and that is seriously gonna be everybody's last memory of me," Ruiz told The Arizona Republic she thought during the harrowing incident.
The 30-year-old wife and mother from Gilbert was doing her daily commute around 7 a.m. on Feb. 18 to her job in Tempe when the hulking machine on wheels came barreling toward her Nissan Titan.
Ruiz said traffic on U.S. 60 slowed down near the Greenfield Road exit in Mesa. When her Titan was at a full stop for about 15 seconds, Ruiz saw the cement truck in full speed in her rearview mirror. With little else to do, Ruiz closed her eyes and braced for impact.
Dashcam video shows the concrete mixer veering off to the left of its lane and colliding into the Titan with at least four other vehicles apparently struck in the fallout.
Ruiz phoned her husband. Then came the flames.
A panic-stricken Ruiz dropped her phone as the fire inched closer and closer inside the cabin, she said.
Body camera video from off-duty Chandler police Officer Brian Larison shows the actions carried out to save Ruiz. Bystanders are seen in the video as they try to free her with the officer intervening. A former U.S. Marine, Larison opted that morning to ride his police motorcycle through U.S. 60 instead of his usual Loop 202 route.
Larison managed to break open her driver-side window with the best tool at his disposal — a police baton. Right after, the truck pivoted back onto its four wheels.
Another former Marine, Asa Paguia, was nearby while driving to work as a firefighter and paramedic with Peoria Fire-Medical Department. He just happened to have his workgear on after an overtime shift the day before. Paguia would approach Ruiz's truck and pull her to safety as dark smoke billowed out the burning vehicle.
"We got you. We got you," Larison is heard telling Ruiz.
She is heard repeatedly uttering the words, "help me."
Struggling to breathe from smoke inhalation, Ruiz would open her eyes and witness the flames consume her truck, including the seat she had been in only moments before.
A reunion between Ruiz and her rescuers has since taken place. She is touched by them telling her they are thankful she made it out alive.
"Felt good because you don't hear that from strangers," she said.
The concrete mixer's driver, a 42-year-old Arizona City resident, was cited on suspicion of failing to control a vehicle to avoid a collision, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Ruiz's most pressing thoughts during the crash and since have been her three children, ages 5, 10 and 12.
"I hold them tight, extra tight, every day now," Ruiz said.
A few weeks prior to her near-death experience, Ruiz and her family visited Disneyland. They had celebrated the birthday of the youngest, whom Ruiz had just dropped off at school. When the boy has an off day, he will ride with his mom on the same stretch of U.S. 60 she takes to work before she leaves him with his grandmother.
"I'm just glad it wasn't one of those days where he had to come with me because I don't think he would have made it," Ruiz said.
The Republic reporter Lauren De Young contributed to this article.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gilbert mom details fiery US 60 crash in Mesa that nearly killed her
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