Former NFL player saves man from I-15 crash near Temecula that killed 4 people
TEMECULA, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) — Four people died and two people were injured in a fiery crash on the I-15 near Temecula around 9:33 p.m. on Saturday.
Former NFL linebacker Glenn Cadrez saw the collision on the way home from his son's Pop Warner football game and helped save one of the injured drivers.
“We were just having a pizza party with the Pop Warner team my son was on,” Cadrez said.
On the way home from their win, the high spirits quickly turned tragic.
“I just saw a big cloud of dust in the median,” he said.
The California Highway Patrol reported a black BMW driving recklessly northbound on the I-15 near Temecula.
“Maybe two seconds ahead of me... just boom!" he recalled. "The car in front of me, I just see a bam.”
The black BMW drove over the concrete median into the southbound traffic lanes, crashing into a white Nissan Sentra.
"I pulled to the left and dodge it, get off the freeway, get out of my truck and start running over there, and both the cars were on fire,” Cadrez said.
Amidst the flames and smoke, Cadrez rushed to the black BMW, and with the help of another witness, they pulled out the 25-year-old driver.
“I look back and it was even worse than when I went there," Cadrez said. "It was just completely engulfed in fire.”
Cadrez says he repeatedly asked the driver if there were other passengers in the car, but the driver never responded.
“He would just say, ‘Is this a bad dream? Is this really happening,’ and I’m like yeah, it’s happening. You’re going to be okay, though,” Cadrez told the 25-year-old driver.
CHP confirms the other passengers in the BMW died at the scene, including a 23-year-old woman along with a 14-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl.
“That’s what my kids are, so that really kind of hit home," he said.
The 36-year-old driver of the Nissan identified by the Riverside Coroner’s Office as Nicholas Callans died on the way to the hospital.
Meanwhile, emergency responders took the 22-year-old man in the passenger seat to the Inland Valley Medical Center in critical condition.
“I definitely think he had to have been going pretty fast to shoot across that median and that dirt and smack a car like that,” Cadrez said.
The former NFL linebacker says he’s seen his fair share of injuries on the field and wasn’t shaken by the driver’s broken leg at the destructive scene.
“You know the hard road ahead of what he’s got to do to get back on the field, and hopefully he can get back on the field, but this situation was just more permanent," he said.
In the aftermath, Cadrez spent the last two sleepless nights thinking of the families who’ve lost their loved ones.
“I don’t look at it like this heroic thing I did. It was just, it happened. It happened quick, and I had to open it and get someone out, you know, it was someone’s kid,” he said.
CHP does not believe alcohol was a contributing factor in this crash and charges against the driver of the black BMW are pending.
CHP says they’re continuing to investigate the cause of this crash and urge anyone with information to contact them at 951-466-4300.
