Newborn and four passengers saved in car crash by two field workers

Jesus Olguin was working in a field Tuesday morning when a car swerved off Highway 99 and crash landed upside down on the railroad track.

Olguin and his coworker dropped their work and sprinted over and attempted to get everyone out of the car.

“I ran over there across the field trying to get the doors open,” Olguin said. “First thing we grab out the back window was a newborn baby.”

Xiomara McLein, 36, of Merced, was in a Saturn L200 and was traveling southbound on Highway 99 north of Franklin Road in the northern outskirt of Merced, said Officer Eric Zuniga of the California Highway Patrol.

Just before 10 a.m. traffic started to slow on the highway, Zuniga said, causing the driver to step on her brakes and swerve to the right, colliding into railroad tracks. The front of the vehicle hit the rocks alongside the railroad tracks and then landed upside down on the tracks, he said.

There were no injuries reported, Zuniga said, and only the driver complained of pain.

“I was working across the street from the crash,” Olguin said. “The car just flies off the freeway and hit the tracks.”

Olguin, 28, and his coworker were able to get the five passengers out of the car through the back window because all the doors were jammed, he said.

The speed of the car was unknown and the three children in the vehicle were properly fastened in car seats, Zuniga confirmed. There was a one-month-old, an 11-month-old, a 4-year-old and a man in his 30s in the vehicle.

“It happened so fast,” he said. “We went out running. Thank God we were there and had the opportunity to help them.”

This story was originally published May 9, 2017 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Newborn and four passengers saved in car crash by two field workers."