A former Bradwell Institute soccer player and Tiger graduate was among the two people killed in a Saturday morning wreck in Bryan County on Highway 17 near Belfast Keller Road. According to Bryan County Coroner Bill Cox former BI student Sergio Miguel Ortega-Gonzalez of Liberty County and Jessica Thornburg of Bloomingdale were killed as a result of the accident.

The three-car accident early happened March 27 in the morning on Highway 17 in Bryan County, according to the Georgia State Patrol.

A fourth person was treated and released at the scene, according to GSP Trooper Cpl. Dante Williams.

Williams said a driver in a 2011 Honda Civic was driving north in the southbound lanes toward Richmond Hill when he collided head-on with a motorist driving a 2004 GMC Sierra pickup truck and a 2012 Toyota Corolla.

The wrong way driver was killed. The operator of the Sierra was seriously injured and taken to Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah by ambulance and according to Williams may face numerous surgeries. A passenger in the pickup was killed, and the driver of the 2012 Toyota Corolla was treated and released at the scene.

Birth

While firefighters were concentrating on the injured involved in the accident, Bryan County Firefighter/Emergency Medical Technician Drew Davis said he had to shift gears when he, along with medical personnel on the scene, assisted Pamela Gaither, 34 who was on her way from Savannah to Winn Army Community Hospital to give birth to her second child.

Gaither said in a phone interview from her hospital bed in Winn they became stuck in traffic due to the accident.

Her husband, Falaq Gaither tried to explain to an officer blocking the road way that his wife Pamela was in labor and had to get to the Army hospital because her contractions were getting closer.

While Pamela was sitting in the vehicle she started to feel the baby come. Her husband, an Army medic, went to the passenger side where Pamela was sitting and observed the baby’s head.

Falaq told his wife to push and the baby, who has since been named Charles, entered the world inside his parents’ vehicle.

While this was occurring the officer at the scene was making first responders aware of what was going on.

Davis said he and the other medical personnel had to change their mindset and assist in the birthing process. “When I heard the initial call about the imminent birth I thought to myself, here’s a positive thing, we’re about to help somebody bring a life into this world.”

Pamela and Charles are doing just fine at Winn, and she praised her husband who wouldn’t have been allowed in the operating room with her due to COVID restrictions for bringing their baby into the world and remaining calm.