Northampton couple recount rescue of 4 Neshaminy students in burning car

Another Saturday was winding down for Emily and Michael Lohin when they felt their Northampton house shake.

It was unexpected interuption in an otherwise ordinary evening.

The family was settling in after a trip for ice cream. Their 4- and 7-year-old daughters were brushing their teeth before bedtime.

Michael, 37, a construction worker, and Emily, 31, a virtual fitness and nutrition instructor, were in the living room. Him relaxing on the recliner and Emily nearby sitting on a yoga ball.

Moments before the house shook, there was a bang. The noise was so loud and startling, it made the Lohins jumped out of their seats.

Immediately, Emily Lohin thought she knew what was responsible.

“I think that was a deer,” she told her husband.

The home sits on a stretch of Bridgetown Pike that straddles Northampton and Lower Southampton. Collisions between vehicles and wildlife are not uncommon along the road which abuts Playwicki Farm Park.

“There is no way that is a deer,” Michael Lohin replied. “That is a car accident.”

What happened next forever changed the lives of five families and the communities where they live.

Nearly a week later, the still raw emotions from what they would discover was a multiple car crash that left several, including four teens, seriously injured, bring fast tears to the eyes of the the couple.

“It’s going to haunt us for a very long time,” Emily Lohin said.

‘We can hear you’

Michael Lohin ran to the front door barefoot. Emily, also barefoot, followed, yelling to her daughters to stay inside the house. We’ll be right back, she told them.

As soon as they opened the door they could hear screaming. At first, Emily thought it sounded like a baby. Then they saw three heavily damaged cars across the street. They also saw something else.

Call 9-1-1, Michael told his wife. Get the fire extinguisher.

“The car is on fire,” he said.

The couple has an emergency safety section in the house where they keep spare batteries, flashlights and fire extinguishers.

Her cellphone clasped between her ear and shoulder, Emily ran across the street with a flashlight and fire extinguisher. Michael was frantically trying to get inside the most damaged car which was on its side.

It was the one the screams were coming from.

“Please help us. Can you see us? We’re right here. We can hear you.”

‘I couldn’t believe they were alive’

Another neighbor, his arm in a sling, appeared at the scene. He gave Michael a hammer. Michael swung at the caved-in front windshield. He hit it once, but stopped after glass started falling on the trapped girls inside.

Next he tried the doors but they wouldn’t budge. He tried to get in through the trunk, but couldn’t. Smoke from the engine was getting thicker.

“It was the most graphic gruesome horrific sight I’ve ever seen,” Emily said. “We both thought we were put in the middle of a Quentin Tarantino movie scene.”

Michael screamed to their next door neighbor, a former firefighter in his native Poland. He came running over with another fire extinguisher and started working to put out the fire, Emily said.

His options to free the girls were dwindling, Michael tried prying open the damaged sunroof with his hands. He ripped open the roof and smoke poured out.

Followed by eight hands, Emily said.

“I couldn’t believe they were alive,” Emily said. “I didn’t think we were going to pull out girls who were still breathing.”

The hands belonged to four Neshaminy High School juniors on their way to one of their homes after a Saturday night road trip to get ice cream.

They were driving south on Bridgetown Pike just past Playwicki Farm Park when a red pickup truck allegedly speeding and traveling in the wrong traffic lane struck the car pushing it back 50-feet where it rolled over landing on the southbound shoulder.

So scared

Bloody glass pieces covered the girls, so Michael stripped off his shirt and wrapped it around his hand like a glove.

Two girls in the backseat managed to crawl out. Michael grabbed them and carried them to safety.

Emily was busy talking to the 9-1-1 operator, while aiming the flashlight in the car with her right hand and simultaneously attempting to pull out the safety on the second fire extinguisher using her right pinky finger.

Her left hand was holding the hand of the front-seat passenger.

Bridgetown Pike traffic was at a standstill. Some drivers got out of their cars to see what was going on. By now 15, maybe 20 people were standing around. Some had cellphones out taking photos and video.

“I literally turned to the guy behind me and said, ‘Help,’” Emily said. “We were so worried this car was going to burst into flames.”

Emily saw her two girls in the living room window watching what was unfolding across the street.

Shortly before police arrived on scene, they were able to put out the engine fire, Emily said.

The front-seat passenger, her right leg and left arm broken, was pinned under the dashboard. One of the police officers was able to move the seat enough that Michael and Emily were able to pull her out just as fire engines and ambulances arrived on scene.

Firefighters used the jaws of life to free the trapped driver who had the most critical life-threatening injuries of the four. Meanwhile, Emily and Michael comforted the other girls by holding their hands, rubbing their heads and reassuring them they wouldn’t leave them.

One girl drifted in and out of consciousness, Emily said. Another kept saying that she couldn’t breathe.

“I try not to imagine what would happen if we weren’t home, if we couldn’t get the sunroof off,” Emily said. “We were so scared to pull that sunroof off. We were scared of what we would find.”

More:Man charged in accident that left four Neshaminy High School students seriously injured

Community effort

The Lohins stayed at the accident scene until 2:30 a.m., hours after the girls had been rushed to area hospitals. They couldn’t stop thinking about what happened. The sound of the screams.

They had never seen so much blood before. No movie scene could compare.

They couldn’t stop worrying about what would happen to the four girls and their families.

What a long recovery they had ahead. Not to mention the extra expenses they’d be hit with.

The medical bills. The physical therapy. The trauma counseling. Their parents would likely need time off work for doctor appointments. How could they continue to support them?

Michael suggested they organize a fundraiser. Maybe a Go Fund Me page?

“I’m on it,” Emily said.

She had already posted on her social media about the accident hoping to find the girls’ families so the couple could find out how they were doing. Within a couple hours, she connected with all four.

Emily asked if they would mind if she created a Go-Fund-Me campaign. The families were grateful for the offer, she said.

She posted a link to the Go-Fund-Me page on her social media Sunday night with a message asking people to share it. Two hours later, she checked the page.

She couldn’t believe it. More than $20,000 had been raised. The total rose to more than $122,000 as of Friday morningt.

The original Facebook link she posted had been shared nearly 200 times. A follow up video Emily posted on Tuesday where she talks about the accident and urged others to share the girls’ story and donate to fundraises has been shared nearly 300 times.

More than 5,000 message requests filled her Facebook messenger app, Emily said. Random people thanking them for getting involved.

One Neshaminy High School student wrote thanking them for not letting her friends die, Emily said, her voice choked with emotion.

Strangers have sent offers of flowers and free dinners to her and her husband, she said.

More importantly, so many people reached out asking how they can help the girls, too.

Two local restaurants held fundraisers collecting more than $2,300. A cousin of one of the girls is selling T-shirts with an inspirational quote on the front and four hearts filled with each girl’s initials on the back.

“It’s been the whole community,” Emily said. “There are so many people who care about these girls. It’s been a full community effort.”

‘So Heartbreaking’

The girls conditions are improving, though three remained hospitalized as of Thursday.

The most seriously injured girl, the driver identified as J.A. in court documents, remains at Temple University Hospital where she was airlifted from the accident scene.

Backseat passenger, Julianna Mazzoni underwent a six-hour back surgery at St. Mary Medical Center on Tuesday where she remains in the intensive care unit, according to her father, Michael Mazzoni. Doctors hoped to get her up and moving on Thursday, he added.

Front-seat passenger Taylor Donnelly, so far, has undergone three surgeries including an emergency surgery for life-threatening intestinal bleeding, her mother, Amanda Donnelly said.

She underwent an eight-hour surgery Wednesday where surgeons screwed metal plates into her right thigh bone and upper left arm. Another surgery was scheduled for Friday on her right ankle.

More:Accident leaves 4 Neshaminy HS students injured: ‘I thought they were all dead’

“When I say if I could take this pain away,. I’ve never seen pain like this,” Donnelly said. “It’s so heartbreaking.”

Taylor was moved out of the intensive care unit at Abington-Jefferson Hospital on Thursday afternoon, but doctors don’t anticipate she’ll be discharged until later this month, Donnelly said.

“The doctor says she is stable. She is going to be OK, but she has a very, very long road ahead,” Donnelly said. “If she wasn’t wearing (her seatbelt) she wouldn’t be here right now.”

Backseat passenger Angelique Corsino was released from St. Mary Medical Center on Wednesday, her father Victor Corsino said. She is recovering at home with multiple injuries including a fractured nose, fractured thumb and sprained thumb, concussion, soft tissue damage and loss of peripheral vision.

“She is in so much pain she can barely do anything,” Victor Corsino said. “She doesn’t even want her phone because she can’t use her thumbs.”

Also out of the hospital is the pickup truck driver, Shane Brolly, 24, a Philadelphia resident. He and his passenger were also seriously injured in the accident.

Brolly, a citizen of Ireland who is in the U.S. illegally, admitted he was drinking alcoholic beverages Saturday before the accident, according to court documents.

Police found open and unopened alcoholic beverages inside the pickup truck at the scene and they allegedly smelled alcohol on Brolly’s breath. Blood tests are pending.

For now, Brolly faces five felony counts of aggravated assault and aggravated assault by vehicle, and eight misdemeanor charges of reckless endangering.

He is incarcerated in Bucks County jail in lieu of 10% of $10 million bail. He had no legal representation listed in court documents as of Thursday.

Strangers no more

The last week has been a surreal emotional journey for the Lohins.

“I can promise you I didn’t want to think about my safety and risking my life. We saw what we saw and did what we had to do. There was no time to think,” Emily said. “If my daughters needed help, I hope someone would jump in and not watch.”

The couple spent all day Sunday crying, Emily said. Sleep has become a stranger. They crave updates on the girls.

On Thursday afternoon Michael spoke to Angelique Corsino for the first time since Saturday, and the brief phone conversation left him in tears.

“They don’t feel like strangers anymore,” Emily said. “My husband says, we have two daughters, but I feel like we have adopted four more daughters.”

To the parents of the four girls, the feeling is mutual. One father has already invited them to high school graduation next year, and told them they can expect four wedding invitations someday.

“Our kids wouldn’t be here without them,” Amanda Donnelly said. “I don’t know how any of those girls would have gotten out without them.”

Fun Gifts For Girls

Main Menu

Northampton couple recount rescue of 4 Neshaminy students in burning car

Mary Morse