Dragons recruit Wendell Sailor said his heroic bolt across six lanes of F6 traffic near Wollongong to rescue a baby from a car crash was just "like a movie".
"It happened unexpectedly, I was 15km out of Wollongong and I was driving home and all of a sudden I looked over on the right and saw a white car smash into the concrete slab and spin around and it was pretty full on, like a movie," Sailor said of the accident on Monday night.
"I pulled up as soon as I could and hurdled across three lanes, over the concrete wall and got to the other side, just to make sure everyone was okay."
The white Holden Astra was being driven by a Wollongong grandmother in her 50s, who had her one-year-old granddaughter in the back seat.
She was heading south shortly after 5pm when her car hit the concrete road divider and then was clipped by a truck.
"It was pretty full-on and pretty scary and as soon as I got there I was thinking of the worst case scenarios because there was baby clothes scattered on the road and there was debris everywhere," Sailor said of the accident scene near Bellambi Creek.
Another anonymous rescuer checked on the grandmother while Sailor opened up the back door to aid the little girl.
"She was just blue-eyed and bushy tailed and staring at me, so I just managed to comfort her and make sure she was all right," Sailor said.
"She was a little sweetheart and I think it gave her more of a shock when she saw a big dark man open up the back door.
"But she was all right, she was quite cuddly, she wasn't shy and her grandmother, I just gave her a bit of a hug, she was very relieved and thanked me for being there."
Sailor stayed with the pair until police and ambulance arrived at the accident scene but shrugged off claims he acted heroically.
"I am no hero, but at the end of the day you just want to help someone and if you didn't you wouldn't be very human," he said.
"The boys and that, when I got to training this morning they said, 'What have you been doing, have you been saving lives or something?' and I said 'no'.
"It wasn't a burning house or anything but it was a pretty full-on accident and I am just happy that no-one was injured and that the baby was all right."
Sailor said the grandmother suffered minor facial injuries from her car's airbag and that the collision occurred on an accident-prone stretch of the road where the afternoon sun made visibility difficult at times.
He said the accident had not turned him off the long daily commute from his home in Sydney to training with the Dragons in Wollongong.
"I would rather be driving that far than not being allowed to play football, because I love football and I love being back in the team environment," he said.
When the Mercury reported on Sailor's rescue yesterday, Sydney radio presenters Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O said they hoped to nominate the player - a regular on their breakfast show - for a bravery award.
* Were you involved in the accident? Tell us your story - email scoop@illawarramercury.com.au, or phone 4221 2206
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