MIAMI – Seventy-three-year-old Lesly Lorquet is grateful to be alive after surviving a steep drop off of an Interstate 95 overpass in downtown Miami over the weekend.
He spoke to Local 10 News on Monday over the phone from his hospital bed.
“I’m not dead. I’m here. God blessed me,” Lorquet said.
Lorquet said he was on his way to work on Saturday afternoon when traffic on I-95 got heavy and slowed down, so he slowed down. But he said the driver behind him did not.
“After that, I don’t know nothing,” he said.
Christian Villalba, a member of New Beginnings Praise and Worship Center, happened to be in the area with his church group, providing meals and doing homeless outreach when Lorquet’s SUV crashed down onto West Flagler Street.
“My instinct was just to run,” Villalba said. “My fear was either the car could light on fire, or it could tilt.”
He said of the rescue, “One of the homeless men, actually, came with a pocket knife (and) cut the seat belt open.”
“I simply put my hands under his armpits, pulled him through, sat him down on the hood,” Villalba said.
Villalba eventually got Lorquet to the side of the road. He said he’s glad that he’s OK.
Lorquet said he’s thankful for his real-life guardian angels.
“God bless everybody,” he said. “God protected me. Thank you. Thank you.”