Young Mother Dies After Being Rescued from Under SUV

With the help of neighbors, a young mother was rescued from under a heavy SUV Thursday morning after she was trapped beneath a front tire. Her three young children—said by neighbors to be 4, 2 and 6 months old—were strapped in the car but unhurt.

But later, according to City News Service, she was pronounced dead at Sharp Memorial Hospital. Neighbors and the hospital identified the victim as Heidi Durfey, who had been in critical condition at the Kearny Mesa hospital’s trauma center in San Diego.

Sonny Saghera, a spokesman for Heartland Fire and Rescue Department, said the victim, 24, was near the car, with her children inside, when it starting rolling back down a 60-foot embankment in the 8700 block of Glenira Avenue “and somehow got caught under the car as it rolled.”

“It came to rest in the street with the front end of the vehicle on top of the victim’s head and chest,” he said.  “Firefighters were successful in lifting the car and removing the victim from underneath.”

She suffered head, chest and abdomen injuries and was taken by ambulance to Sharp Memorial Hospital in acute status, he said.

The children inside the car all were seat-belted and unhurt, Saghera said.

A next-door neighbor—a retired kindergarten teacher—was taking care of Durfey's children while authorities tried to contact the victim’s husband.

According to Ruth Gamet,* a neighbor of Durfey, the young mom has two daughters and a son—the male middle child being 1 or 2 years old.

Gamet said her son-in-law, Jim, helped lift the SUV off Durfey with a car jack.

Lou Pohlenz, the victim’s next-door neighbor in the hilly area south of Lemon Avenue Elementary School, said Durfey’s 4-year-old daughter came yelling up the driveway after the accident about 9:15 a.m.

Pohlenz said his wife, Linda, called for him, and he saw the silver GMC Yukon XL with brush under its front end. He said he could barely see Durfey’s front leg sticking out from beneath the car.

The children were taken out of the Yukon and into his home, said Pohlenz, a retired SPAWAR employee in Point Loma.

“The kids are just fine,” he said while standing on his driveway as the sun beat down. “They’re watching cartoons and having a snack. [My wife] knows exactly how to take care of this.”

Pohlenz said the kids were told “that Mommy got hurt and went to see the doctor.”

Gamet, watching a Channel 10 news crew interview Saghera yards away from the accident, said she came across the accident while on a walk just after it happened and “thought I saw a manikin under the car,” with legs sticking out.

Seeing the kids in the car, she began looking for their mother, only to realize in horror that Durfey was under the car—and heard her moaning.

Gamet ran to get her son-in-law, Jim, and call 911, and they soon found a jack to lift the front of the SUV off Durfey.

Saghera said Heartland was first notified at 9:20 a.m. and Fire Engine 13—from Fire Station 13 on Grossmont Boulevard—arrived at 9:25 a.m.

When that crew realized they needed help moving the car, they called for a second engine, from the Allison Avenue station, along with another vehicle and a battalion chief in a separate car, Saghera said. They never came—because the first engine had taken care of them at the scene with the help of the neighbor’s jack.

The La Mesa Police Department had several RSVP patrol volunteers helping with traffic control west of the accident. Police are investigating its cause.

*Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story misspelled Ruth Gamet’s name as Garnet.