CHP Honors 4 Who Saved Pair From Burning Car in I-5 Crash

Four passers-by who helped rescue a man and a 6-year-old boy from their burning car after it collided head-on with a motor home on Interstate 5 near Castaic received commendations Wednesday from the California Highway Patrol.

The four are credited with saving the lives of Josh Sallaz, 6, of Lebec, and Paul Swanson, 26, of Sepulveda, whose car was pinned beneath the motor home March 12.

Sandra Contreras, 29, of Lebec, and her 10-day-old baby, Joseph Swanson, were also riding in the car and were killed instantly, CHP Officer Harry Ingold said. The two passengers in the motor home were not injured, he said.

Before emergency help arrived, the men attached snow chains to Swanson’s car and towed it away from the motor home with a truck, then pulled Swanson from the vehicle, Ingold said.

“The car was like an accordion, and when the propane tank on the motor home exploded, the fire was just intense,” said Deyane Leiby, 48, a salesman from Bakersfield who helped pull the boy through a window of the burning car. Leiby was honored along with Paul Rios, 60, of Antioch, Joseph Smith, 57, of Pine Grove, and Bert Knox, 73, of Chico.