Boulder police rescue child, mother after car crash

A car crash led to the rescue of a 4-year-old girl and her mother in Boulder on Tuesday night.

It happened behind a business on 30th Street and Valmont Road. The incident and rescue were caught on police body-worn and security cameras.

“It’s always complicated, as a human being, to be able to separate emotions when something like this happens, especially involving a little child,” Officer Raquel Ray said.

Officers Ray and Carlos Castro were the first to respond to the scene.

“The driver was just revving the engine,” Castro said, describing how the driver continued pressing the gas after the crash.

“I saw what I believe was little legs, so I was like, that’s it, we need to escalate the situation a little bit because we need to make sure everyone is safe,” Ray said.

Ray busted a window to get the driver’s attention, at which point she turned the engine off, but the car was still hanging over a retaining wall about 5 feet down.

Ray held Castro by his belt while he pulled the child to safety.

“Doing this job,” Castro said, “you have to separate your emotions a little bit and be able to think about it. If I had reacted like a father or something like that, I probably would have put myself in danger getting close to the vehicle when it was not safe to do so.”

Eventually, Boulder Fire-Rescue crews stabilized the car, and the driver was taken from it in much better condition than before — a medical event is suspected to have caused the crash.

“That was a call that stood out because there was so many things that could have gone wrong if we wouldn’t have been there on time,” Ray said.

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The driver was eventually charged with careless driving, reckless endangerment and child abuse because of the circumstances, although investigators will determine whether this was in fact a medical event that could impact those charges.