“I’m 20 weeks pregnant. I cannot die today.” It was 2 a.m. on a cold December night in Illinois, and a young woman was calling 911 from a runaway car. 

“I need help. My brakes won’t stop. My car won’t stop. My brakes aren’t working,” she pleaded. She was going about 30 miles per hour, headed straight for a freezing lake. 

The 911 dispatcher notified the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office and Deputy Tyler Coffey sprang into action. He located the car and saw the brake lights illuminated, but it wasn’t slowing down. 

He positioned his car in front of hers for a “rolling road block” maneuver, and their bumpers gently met. Slowly and safely, they came to a stop together. The whole incident took about seven minutes. 

Without Deputy Coffey’s quick thinking, the runaway car would have gone right into the freezing water. Instead, the mother, her unborn baby, her dog in the car, and all the deputies involved left the scene dry and unharmed.

Deputy Coffey remains humble about the lifesaving rescue, insisting it was a team effort from start to finish, from the 911 dispatchers to all the deputies. “Everybody worked together and made this a safe incident,” he insists. 

“Myself and two other deputies had jumped out and ran up to that vehicle to make sure that it was in park and that the driver was OK,” he told ABC News. 

Every time that first responders put on their uniforms and step out of the door, they face the unknown. With unwavering courage, they rush toward situations the rest of us run from, making life-or-death decisions in the blink of an eye. 

The calm that Deputy Coffey and his colleagues delivered in a moment of crisis deserve our respect, our gratitude, and our support.