Georgia Magazine - March 2023 - 42

Hometown HEROES
By Amber Lanier Nagle
The Rome High School
football players who
rescued the injured
woman are, from
left, Cesar Parker,
Tyson Brown, Antwion
Carey, Alto Moore and
Treyvon Adams.
I
Rome High School football players
rescue woman from car crash
t was a warm, humid Friday morning in August, and the
roadways around Rome bustled with traffic.
Treyvon Adams was driving three of his friends-
Antwion Carey, Tyson Brown and Alto Moore-to school and
slowed his vehicle to survey the busy intersection in front of
Rome High School.
As he watched, a car suddenly pulled in front of a small silver
sedan, causing it to collide with a vehicle on the other side of the
divided highway. Bam! And then everything fell silent for a few
moments.
" I don't remember thinking about it or saying anything, "
Adams says. " All of us just jumped out of the car and started
running in that direction. "
" We could hear the woman [in the silver car] screaming in
pain, " Moore adds. " And we could see that her face was bloody. "
Cesar Parker and his mother were in the vehicle behind the
four young men and also witnessed the crash. Like the others,
Parker rushed to the vehicle to help. All five students are 17 years
old and members of the Rome High School football team.
Smoke billowed from the engine of the silver sedan, and fluid
spilled onto the pavement. The car's doors were jammed, and the
woman was trapped. Whether it was a surge of adrenaline or the
result of many hours of weight training and team activities, the
football players worked together and, with superhuman strength,
forced the doors open. They comforted the 50-year-old injured
42 Georgia Magazine March 2023
woman and pulled her from the wreckage.
Parker and Adams then shifted their attention to the people
in the other vehicle involved in the accident.
" They were an elderly couple, and the airbag [had deployed
and] had hurt the woman, but they seemed OK, " Parker
remembers.
Paramedics arrived about six minutes after the collision
and began treating the driver of the silver car. The five young
heroes got back into their vehicles and continued on to school
as though nothing extraordinary had happened.
" We didn't want to be late for school that day, " Adams says.
Accounts of the young men's valor spread like wildfire
throughout the school, the community, the state and the nation.
All the attention and praise have genuinely surprised the teens.
" It all happened so fast, and we just trusted our gut and did
what was right. That's all, " Carey says. " It's the way we were
raised. "
In the face of danger, emergencies and crises, some people
remain bystanders, while others-like Adams, Carey, Brown,
Moore and Parker-choose to respond.
" We hope our story inspires others, " Brown says. " If
someone needs help, act, get involved and just do the right
thing! "
Amber Lanier Nagle is a freelance writer living in
Adairsville.
AMBER LANIER NAGLE
Georgia Magazine - March 2023

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