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Teens drive by crash, rescue friend from wreckage

The very definition of serendipity: Two friends were out for a drive and ran into one of their friends - who'd just been in a crash. They were able to save the girl as her Jeep caught fire.
Ibrahim Ba and Erin Pendleton said they saw their friend's Jeep after a Douglas County wreck, and ran to pull her out of the vehicle. Minutes later, they said the Jeep was engulfed in fire.

DOUGLAS COUNTY — Erin Pendleton remembers the first time she met Rebekah Hale.

“I met Rebekah freshman year. We played softball together at Regis,” Pendleton said.

Pendleton means Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora, where the two first became teammates - then later, friends.

“Erin intimidated me a little bit at first,” Hale said. “She was so focused on softball and I was a freshman, I was small and I didn’t know what I was doing really.”

Over the next four years, their friendship grew. They graduated together this May but continued to see each other throughout the summer.

On July 4, Pendleton was driving around with another friend, Ibrahim Ba, when they passed Hale in her white Jeep. The group even discussed hanging out later in the evening.

A few hours later, Pendleton and Ba spotted Hale’s Jeep again. This time, it was on the side of the road after a crash.

“She has a daisy tire cover on the back of her Jeep,” Pendleton said. “I was like, 'Oh my goodness, that’s Rebekah!'"

The crash happened near the intersection of Castle Pines Parkway and Monarch Boulevard in Douglas County. Pendleton and Ba said they pulled over their vehicle and ran to help.

“It was not pretty the way it looked, all smashed in in the front,” Pendleton said.

It took several minutes before she and Ba found a door they could pry open and pull Hale out of the Jeep. Pendleton carried her to a nearby spot in the grass, safely away from the car. Ba said they noticed small flames on the vehicle just as they stepped away.

“I was sitting with Rebekah, I just had her in my arms the whole time,” Pendleton said. “I said, ‘Rebekah, you’re ok.’ I tried to not cry because I didn’t want to make her more worried than she already was.”

Hale said her memory of the crash is foggy.

“I don’t remember the car hitting me, but I can kind of picture the car coming towards me when I’m on the road,” she said. “The only other thing I remember is being in Erin’s lap and she’s telling me it’s going to be OK.”

The group moved quick enough to avoid more danger.

“The car started catching on fire right after we pulled Rebekah to the curb,” Ba said. He snapped a picture of the Jeep engulfed in flames just minutes later.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the crash. Law enforcement said it was a head-on collision, but has not yet released the accident report or provided more details about what caused the crash or the condition of the other driver.

Hale spent a week in the hospital with a concussion and a shattered heel. Recovery will take her several more weeks, but she is grateful her injuries are not worse.

“Erin was literally able to save my life,” she said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to make it up [to her], but I just hope that I can somehow be as good of a friend as Erin was to me.”

“It just makes you realize, like how life can be something so precious,” Pendleton said.

Pendleton and Ba both said they didn’t think too much before reacting. Helping a friend was the most important thing, they said.

“Even if you’re a stranger you should be able to react in that situation,” Ba said. “Don’t be a bystander, do something. Try to help in some way.”

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