CHESTER COUNTY, S.C. — A Chester County woman says she owes her life to a deputy she now calls her “guardian angel,” after he pulled her from her burning car along I‑77.
Carletta Bush was driving from Georgia to Charlotte to celebrate finishing radiation treatment for breast cancer when she lost control of her car on a rainy stretch of I‑77 near Exit 62.
She hit a guardrail, rolled, and blacked out. When she came to, she realized she was trapped. “I was actually on my way to Charlotte to celebrate a milestone,” Bush said.
Chester County Patrol Deputy Daniel Threatt happened to pull up moments later. His body‑camera video shows him running toward the smoking vehicle as the horn blared.
“Ma’am, can you hear me? Can you crawl to me? Your car is on fire,” he shouted as he broke the window.
Threatt said he knew the situation was dire. “This car can blow at any moment, so this is where me and her meet God,” he recalled.
Bush said he cut her seatbelt and urged her to climb toward him. “I said, ‘Okay, Lord, I need for you to give me the strength to climb out of this window so he can help me save myself.’”
With Threatt’s help, she escaped just in time.
“He was telling me all of these great things to calm me down,” Bush said. “I just know the Lord placed him there at the right time because if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have made it.”
Threatt later visited Bush in the hospital, where she watched the rescue video for the first time. She has since returned to Georgia to continue her cancer treatment and is recovering from a broken collarbone.
The York County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team, crisis negotiators and the U.S. Marshals Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force also assisted in the response.
Those who wish to aid Bush in her fight against cancer can do so here.
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