Adam Bellinger could see people flying out of a Mercury Mountaineer as it flipped across I-75 North in a fatal wreck last week.
All he could think about was saving the victims.
“I drove up there to see if there was anyone I could render aid to,” he told Channel 2 Action News in an interview Monday afternoon.
Once at the scene, Bellinger found 10-year-old Angelica Ballinas fighting for her life. Ballinas was one of nine people ejected from the SUV during Thursday afternoon’s wreck near the Bill Gardner Parkway exit. Eight of them were taken to different hospitals, including three who were flown. Their conditions were not known Monday.
MORE: Girl ejected, killed in wreck on I-75 North in Henry County; 8 others injured
“We did CPR on her for (what) felt like an eternity,” Bellinger said. “It was probably 10 to 15 minutes before an ambulance showed.”
But Ballinas was pronounced dead at the scene.
“We lost her pulse in five minutes,” Bellinger said.
RELATED: Authorities ID 10-year-old girl killed in I-75 wreck in Henry County
According to the Georgia State Patrol, The driver, Sonia Del Carmen Cabrera Benitez, 31, of Fort Smith, Ark. overcorrected her steering and lost control while attempting to change lanes.
The Mercury then struck a Nissan Sentra before traveling back across the roadway onto the east shoulder of the interstate, GSP officials said. The Mercury flipped several times. Six children and three adults were ejected.
Benitez and Maria Olimpia Rivas Quevedo, 46, of Van Buren, Ark., were taken to Atlanta Medical Center, the GSP said.
Enilsa Judith Revolorio Rivas, age unknown; Christopher Grandados-Cabrera, 11; Daira Grandados-Cabrera, 10; Natalia Gonzalez-Cabrera, 5; Esau Ballinas, 16; and Joselin Ballinas, 9, were all taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston.
The identity of the Nissan driver was not released, but her husband told Channel 2 she suffered minor injuries, but is OK.
Bellinger said the crash left him heartbroken, but “it’s nothing compared to what it was for the family.”
“I just did the bare minimum of what anyone should do,” he told Channel 2. “I don’t think it’s heroic at all. I was just being a decent human being.”
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