EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (KABC) -- An 80-year-old woman credits three El Segundo police officers for saving her life after she was run over and trapped underneath a car in the parking lot of a 99 Cents Only store.
"It was worse than having a baby. The pain was so, you couldn't, you couldn't bear it," 80-year-old Chickie Leabou said.
The pain Leabou experienced was from the crushing weight of a car on her leg. Surveillance video shows her returning a shopping cart and then getting hit by a Toyota Yaris pulling into a handicapped space. The 80-year-old driver gets out of the car and appears confused.
In the meantime, a witness calls 911. Fortunately, the El Segundo police and fire departments are located just one block away.
"We knew the quickest way to get there was to run, so we ran across the street," said El Segundo police Det. Luke Muir. "A young man flagged us down and led us right to where the woman was."
"She was screaming for help, so we decided the quickest way to get her off from underneath this car was to lift it up," said El Segundo police Det. Eric Atkinson
Muir, Atkinson and El Segundo police Officer Thomas Jones were the first ones on scene. The elderly driver told police he accidentally stepped on the gas instead of the brake.
"She's a very strong lady. She showed how strong she was by not showing a lot of pain. Once the paramedics got there, you could see that she was very badly injured," Jones said.
To help her cope, Leabou says she relied on her sense of humor and advice from her mother long ago: "Always make sure you have your best underwear on, you have your makeup on and you polish your toe nails."
"Well, I didn't have my best underwear on that day because I was just shopping and I didn't polish my toe nails, so that was going through my mind," Leabou said.
She suffered three cracked vertebrae and a broken angle, and will need several months of rehabilitation, but Leabou's thankful the police came to her rescue so quickly.
"I'd scrub their kitchen floor if they wanted me to, but not until next year," Leabou said, adding that she would rather laugh than cry about this whole situation.
The driver has not been charged, but the California Department of Motor Vehicles could decide to restrict his license.