On the frosty morning of Jan. 9, 2015, Tony Grady and Chris Matos both found themselves in the right place at the right time on John Green Smith Road, a two-lane, winding country road in Deep Run, North Carolina.
Grady watched as a car driving an estimated 200 yards in front of him slid off the road and into a creek. Matos, an off-duty state trooper, had been traveling in the opposite direction but watched the same incident through his rearview mirror. The vehicle carried Maria Chavez and two children, a 14-year-old boy and a baby.