Channel 11 Exclusive: Woman rescued from crash as a baby in 1978 reunited with man who saved her

It was a moment decades in the making.

Forty-seven years after a devastating crash along Interstate 79, former state trooper and now Washington County Commissioner Larry Maggi came face to face with the baby he once pulled from the wreckage.

“Which one is Memori?” Maggi asked with a smile before the two shared an emotional hug.

Back in May of 1978, a car lost control on I-79, crashed into a guide rail, and went over a bridge, plunging 53 feet onto train tracks below.

First responders rushed to the scene, fearing the worst.

“Everyone thought there were no survivors,” Maggi recalled.

Then—something unexpected.

“All of a sudden, we hear this baby cry.”

According to reports at the time, eight people worked together to lift the car as Maggi reached inside and pulled the six-month-old out through a window.

“I reached in and figured out where she was at, and pulled her out,” he said. “There was some concern because she had some injuries.”

Memori had lost her mother, father and grandmother in the crash. She was rushed to the hospital with critical injuries and placed in a full body cast. Doctors weren’t sure what her future would look like.

“I was told my left leg would never grow,” Memori said.

But today, she has no lasting injuries from the crash.

Now a mother herself, Memori is also the director of student success at Pierpont Community and Technical College—something she says reflects the purpose she believes came from surviving that day.

For Maggi, the call was one of many during a long career in public service—but it was never one he forgot.

“Often over the years, I’ve wondered what happened to that baby,” he said.

For Memori, the man who saved her life was never far from her thoughts.

“I called you my angel here on Earth,” she told him during their reunion. “I firmly believe God dispatches angels to heaven—but you did your job here on Earth. I’m positive about that.”

And after 47 years, both say finally meeting one another is something they will never forget.

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