The girls were driving down Blue Sulphur Road at about 8:30 p.m. Thursday night when they swerved to avoid hitting a car coming from the opposite direction, flipping their car into a creek.
At the right place at the right time, Fred Pace was at his girlfriend's house near where the accident happened. He says he heard a loud bang and then screaming, so he rushed to the street to see what happened. Within five minutes of the crash he was there to help.
"I was sort of disoriented when I looked in the car," said Pace. "There were these girls hanging upside down scared, crying, and bleeding."
Wedged in a creek, both sides of car doors were jammed shut. A rescue that demanded more than just the strength of one man, but Pace says he wasn't working alone.
"I just said a little prayer and just felt like God gave me the strength and, maybe, adrenaline and I just pushed as hard as I could and it just gave way," he said.
Pace got all four girls out safely. It was a recovery that earned him the title of "hero".
"If Fred wasn't there we probably wouldn't have made it out alive or anything," said passenger Kayla Shockley. "We're just really blessed that he was there because he's pretty much our savior."
The girls are now using Facebook to show Pace how grateful they are to be alive.
"My only vision of them was bloody, muddy, crying, scared and hurt," said Pace. "To be able to go on Facebook and see their pictures in high school at their prom and different things where they're smiling and happy...that gave me great comfort to know they were all going to be okay."
It's the story of a heroic rescue that began in tears and ended in friendship.
Video of the story available at: http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/Four_Teens_Survive_Car_Crash_with_Strangers_Help_116579973.html
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