PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla. — Editor's note: A previous version of this story stated the 19-year-old man killed in the crash was a child. The Florida Highway Patrol said their report contained a typo, and the story has been corrected.
Tragedy struck on a rural stretch of a road a few miles away from Salt Springs Thursday night when a 21-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man lost their lives in a car crash. Many bystanders stopped to help, but unfortunately the man and woman were already dead.
A Florida Highway Patrol report states the crash happened when an SUV, driven by a 60-year-old man, attempted to pass another vehicle traveling south when the front left part of his vehicle struck the front left part of the woman's van, who was driving the opposite direction.
As a result of the crash, the man's SUV flipped over and the woman's van came to final rest facing east on the eastern shoulder, according to FHP.
Among the bystanders who were there for the aftermath of the crash were Jasmine and Stephon Sapp. They were driving home from St. Augustine when they pulled up to the scene and a woman ran up to their car asking for help.
Stephon is a nurse in Ocala, so he rushed to the SUV to help a 60-year-old man, and what he saw was not going to be an easy task.
"The whole dash had pent him down, so I was trying to pull him out," Stephon said. "I get him out, but I guess the right leg was still stuck.”
Stephon could have waited for first responders, but he knew he could not leave the man.
“He’s either going to suffocate from the smoke, or the car can catch fire and he will perish," he said.
Also traveling in the SUV and injured in the crash was the man's passenger, a 62-year-old woman.
A short time later, Stephon and Jasmine ran to the other vehicle at the scene where they found the younger man and woman already dead.
"She didn't have her pulse" Jasmine said. "I went on the other side to check on the boy, but he was... he was already gone."
Both Jasmine and Stephon have a message to the couple that were taken to the hospital, telling them that if they see this, to please reach out.
"Please, if you ever see this, please reach out to us," Jasmine said. "We want to see you, we want to hug you. We just want to let you know that God put us there for a reason."
