A crew of local movers saved two lives when they came across a blazing overturned vehicle Wednesday night on their drive home from Miami.
It was 11 p.m. and the crew from Spirit Movers was driving north on Interstate 75 when driver Joe Antoni noticed an overturned car on fire as they approached mile marker 63 in Collier County.
"Joe started screaming 'There's a car on fire!' " said Dr. Vanessa Stillman, a dentist who was a passenger in the moving truck.
Antoni and crew members Willie Tatum, Josh Barnes and Tan Stillman, along with Vanessa Stillman, rushed to the car with a fire extinguisher to help the three occupants who were trapped inside.
The emergency operator told Vanessa Stillman it would take 45 minutes to get crews to the remote location and the crew could do what they needed to rescue the occupants.
"If we hadn't been there when we were, I don't know who would've seen them," Vanessa Stillman said.
Antoni put out the flames while Tan Stillman got the driver Thierry Gregory LeHors and 16-year-old Gregory Patrick Julienne, who was riding in the backseat, out of the vehicle.
"When we got to the mother, I couldn't get a pulse," Tan Stillman said. "They told me to leave her. We weren't supposed to do anything once they stop moving."
Tan Stillman said he doesn't feel like a hero and he is upset he couldn't save passenger Pascale Alice Julienne, who died shortly after the accident.
"I think if I might have turned the car over earlier, I think the mother might have been able to breathe and she might have survived," said an emotional Tan Stillman.
According to a Florida Highway Patrol report, LeHors, of France, fell asleep at the wheel, causing him to lose control of the 2004 Kia. LeHors broke a leg in the crash.
Gregory Julienne was taken to Naples Community Hospital, but was later flown to Lee Memorial Hospital after medical personnel discovered that he had a broken neck.
FHP Cpl. Maritza Gonzalez said Gregory Julienne also had injuries to his ribs and hips.
Andrew Stillman, owner of Spirit Movers, 2340 Trailmate Drive, in southern Manatee County, called his crew's actions "amazing" and described how proud he was of them. The employees, he said, were still saddened that their efforts couldn't save all three of the car's occupants.
"They said anyone would have done it," Stillman said, "but I know differently."
