Fla. deputy saving unconscious baby’s life after car crashes with speeding motorcyclist

A deputy in Charlotte County, Florida, saved the life of a 6-month-old baby who became trapped inside the backseat of her mother’s car, after a motorcyclist crashed into them going more than 100 mph, according to the sheriff’s office.

After witnessing the Feb. 8 crash, Deputy Sgt. Dave Musgrove got out of his vehicle and raced to the scene, the office said in a Friday release. 

Musgrove’s bodycam video shows him helping a screaming child out of the vehicle and flagging down a pedestrian to hold the child while he tried to free an unconscious baby trapped in her car seat near the body of the motorcyclist, who had come to rest in the rear window of the driver’s side of the vehicle. 

“Is your baby OK?” Musgrove asked while attempting to free the 6-month-old from the car. “No!” the mother cried. 

The sheriff’s office said the part of the car where the baby was had been crushed so much that it was difficult to get the car seat out and the deputy was forced to enlist help from bystanders.

After being removed from the vehicle and her car seat, the baby appeared to have no pulse and wasn’t breathing. 

Musgrove called for paramedics and began CPR on the baby while her distraught mother cried “Is she alive?!” 

Musgrove tells the mother, “I just heard her breathe,” after administering several chest compressions. 

When EMS arrived, a paramedic informed Musgrove that they had detected a pulse and the baby was taken to the hospital.

“The actions of Sgt. Musgrove are to be commended,” Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell said in a statement. 

“His poise and calm demeanor in a scene of chaos and tragedy ultimately saved the life of a beautiful child. I want to thank the bystanders who came to his aid as well, allowing him to focus on the immediate need of the baby,” Prummell added. “This was a senseless accident that resulted in a life lost, but it would have been two lives had Dave not been there. Still, I offer my thoughts and prayers to the friends and family of the motorcyclist and I ask that you keep this mother and her children in your prayers.”

The baby’s “road to recovery will be long” but she “is alive,” the sheriff’s office said, adding that the mother and the other child are “doing well.”