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Teen Crushed By His Truck is Saved By A Cell Phone

Sam Ray was home alone when he faced the most crushing trial of his life. It was July 2nd, 2015 and the 18-year old was working under his truck at his family home in Nashville, TN.

“I used jack stands, went through the proper procedures,” Sam said. “But I got under there and I found what I believed to be the issue and I gave my dad a call and uh let him know what was going on and he promptly told me to get out from underneath the truck.”

It was then that one of the jacks gave way. Thousands of pounds slammed onto one of San’s arms and abdomen.

“From the moment of impact, pretty quick afterwards, you know, that ‘I might not get out of this.’ It's a very helpless feeling, uh you can't move.”

With the weight of the truck slowly crushing his body, Sam fought to breathe.

“So what I'd do is I'd focus everything on getting a breath,” Sam said. “And then hold the air for as long as I could to cry for help and then try to wriggle free as much as I could during that time and stopped a little bit and tried to breathe again.

Sam’s only lifeline was prayer.

“I was saved at a very young age and uh I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt where I was going, if this was the end,” Sam said. “It was still scary, cause, you know, I had family and friends and things I wanted to do, a life that I wanted to live.”

Sam had been pinned more than 30 minutes, when he heard a familiar voice—Siri from his iphone. It was in his back pocket and was activated by the pressure on Sam’s body as he struggled to get free.

“And then I realized, well, hey, I might be able to use that.” Sam said. “So that's when I started trying to give voice commands and telling it, you know, call 911.”

After several attempts, Siri responded. The call set of a string of radio and cell phone alerts for first responders in the area. One of them, a volunteer firefighter, happened to live just down the street. Within minutes, he was able to jack up the truck and pull Sam to safety. Shortly after, a lifeflight unit from Vanderbilt University arrived.  

“When we first received the call, all the information we had is that there was a young man that had been trapped under a vehicle for we think about 30 minutes,” Lifeflight nurse Tim Hurst said. “Obviously, we prepared for the worst thinking that this would be severe injuries, especially being under a heavy vehicle for that amount of time. Many times, these outcomes are not good.”

Doctors feared Sam had severe internal injuries that could cause long term damage. Immediately, Sam and his family turned to prayer.

“I think the biggest one was that God would have his will and way.” Sam’s mom, Laura Ray said.  “Regardless of what the outcome, I knew he would have control and that he would bring it around to be what he wanted it to be.  But lots of fear and disbelief that this is my son, that this is something that's happening to our family.  Probably the biggest fear was just I don't want it to be a bad result.”

Doctor’s ran a battery of tests to rule out any major internal organ damage, but only discovered a few broken ribs and burns. The very next day, Sam walked out of the hospital.

“The doctor said he could not believe with the truck falling on him that there wasn’t more severe injuries than what he had and that we were very blessed,” Laura said. “I knew God had a hand in the whole thing. I knew he’d been protected and God had his hands on him.”

Doctors told the family if things didn’t happen the way they did, Sam could have lost his life.

“Even though Sam was trapped for about 30 minutes under the vehicle, things could have been much worse,” Lifeflight nurse Tim Hurst said. “If he had not been able to call 911 and get a first responder to assist.”

“Had the car come down even another inch and broken more ribs, or done more damage to his – to his spleen or bruised more lung tissue,” Lifeflight nurse Kirk Krokosky “If the car would have come down any further, he might not have walked away at all.”

 “To see Sam leave the hospital in a relatively short period of time was-was very miraculous,” Tim said.

“You can call it divine intervention, you know, but it-it wasn't his time. He's here for a reason,” Kirk said.

Sam’s Siri rescue gained national media attention, but the Ray family gives God all the credit.

“God kinda has his hand in everything,” Sam said. “So whether the people call me lucky or blessed, either way I know it's God. They can argue and say, ‘Oh, well, you know, the phone did this and the phone did that.’  No, the phone didn't do anything.  It was God."


“Power of prayer, it works,” Sam said. “And sometimes people think they're speaking to air, but they don’t really realize that God made that air, and if he made that air he can hear your voice.  But God's there and he hears what you're praying and no matter how many times you pray, he still hears you.”

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