Illinois deputies helped avert disaster early Monday, preventing a pregnant woman whose brakes failed from plunging into a bitingly cold lake.
Jaelyn Mocaby, the pregnant driver, called 911 around 2 a.m. Monday to report that her brakes were failing. Mocaby declined to be interviewed by NBC News, as the incident has left her emotionally shaken.
Mocaby told the 911 dispatcher that she couldn't slow down or turn off the Chevy Malibu, according to a recording of the call. She was able to put the car in neutral at the dispatcher's prompting, which helped slow it down slightly.
But the car was still moving downhill, Mocaby told the dispatcher.
“I’m 20 weeks pregnant; I cannot die today,” Mocaby said during the 911 call.
The Williamson County Sheriff’s Office said deputies who caught up to Mocaby saw that her brake lights were on but that the car wasn't slowing down.
Deputy Tyler Coffey drove ahead of Mocaby's car and hit the brakes on his own vehicle.
"I'm in front of her now," Coffey said in the video. "Yeah, she's getting close to that dead end."
Mocaby’s car hit Coffey's bumper, finally stopping just about a quarter-mile short of Crab Orchard Lake. Sheriff Jeff Diederich said in a statement that had the deputies delayed, Mocaby "would have likely gone into the water."
Coffey told NBC Chicago that he was just glad the woman was safe.
"I’m glad I was in the area and very close to her. That way we could have gotten that vehicle stopped in time," Coffey said.
Mocaby's mother, Carol Mocaby, told NBC News that her daughter was driving a car that she shared with her boyfriend and wasn't very familiar with it. Her daughter was "scared to death" and worried about her baby.
"I just think she had a whirlwind of emotions going on at the time and not really knowing what to do," Carol Mocaby said.
Mocaby has been overwhelmed by the attention, her mother said. The family is working to keep her as "calm as possible," as she is dealing with a high-risk pregnancy already.
Her mother is grateful that the deputies were nearby and reacted so quickly.
"For them to be there at that time, that was just a complete miracle," she said.
