BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – Emmalee Bond is on the road to recovery after a serious crash nearly three weeks ago.
Bond, 20, is in a San Antonio rehabilitation center after a wrong-way driver crashed into her head-on just before Christmas Day.
There were several calls to emergency services on Dec. 21, 2024, about a wrong-way driver on Interstate 37, just inside the southern line of Bexar County in Elmendorf.
Moments later, there was a head-on crash between the wrong-way driver and Bond.
Over a dozen first responders arrived on the scene. Bond’s mother, Shara, arrived shortly thereafter.
Bond’s workplace contacted her mother and father about her not showing up to work, which was out of the ordinary.
Emmalee Bond’s mother and father drove different routes toward her job until her mother came across the scene.
“I stopped to talk to a fireman, and I told them that I was looking for my daughter,” Shara Bond said.
While at the scene, speaking with officers and other first responders, Shara Bond was informed that the accident was not her daughter’s fault, but after the two vehicles collided, they both burst into flames.
Shara Bond said she didn’t care whose fault it was. She just wanted her daughter to be OK.
Emmalee Bond’s father, Joe, said a good Samaritan is why his daughter is still alive.
“He gets out of his vehicle, and he runs across the median,” Joe Bond said. “He said, ‘I thought it that I didn’t know if I could get the door open,‘ and he said all of a sudden, a guy was standing next to him who said, ’We can get it open.‘”
Joe and Shara Bond have since spoken with the good Samaritan in person. Emmalee Bond has also been able to meet him and thank him for saving her.
Joe Bond remembers everything the good Samaritan mentioned happening.
“They went around to the back side of the truck, which wasn’t on fire yet, and opened the back passenger door, and he said, ‘Emmalee slid right into our hands,’” Joe Bond said. “They drug (sic) her out of the truck, out of the car, because by this time, there was grass and brush all around on fire and got her away.”
Joe Bond said the good Samaritan, who he identified as Mr. Cantu, saved his daughter’s life and waited with her until an ambulance took her away.
“I will be forever grateful to him because she would not be here if he would not have been right there,” Shara Bond said.
The driver who caused the crash died at the scene, authorities said. The passenger in his vehicle was also taken to a hospital.
While the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office is still waiting for the results of a toxicology report, the Bond family said this crash could have been avoided.
“The driver of the car had been to several bars,” Shara Bond said.
Shara Bond told KSAT that the passenger in the driver’s car remembered parts of the night before the crash and assisted deputies with information.
“He was three to four times over the legal limit. They’re still waiting on toxicology for other things,” Shara Bond said.
The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office has not yet confirmed that information to KSAT.
The Bond family said they’re thankful that their daughter is alive and hopeful her story can have a positive impact.
“We hear about drinking and driving every day,” Joe Bond said. “There’s (sic) too many other opportunities now with Ubers. He lost his life, and it could have been worse.”