Driver Survives Being Pinned, Dragged 1,500 Feet by Semi on I-30

A North Texas woman cannot believe she walked away from a horrific crash nearly unscathed.

Ana Montaño pointed to three small scratches on her body.

Incredible, when you consider the crash she was involved in on Monday afternoon.

She was running errands around 4:45 p.m. and was driving westbound on I-30 when Mesquite police said a tractor-trailer began to change lanes, moving into the far left lane where she was driving.

"I saw through the mirror an 18-wheeler," she said. "I saw that he was already getting even closer to me changing lanes and I started honking and I tried going a little faster."

But she couldn't pass the merging semi.

Police said it hit her car on it passenger side, pinning it up against the zipper wall of the HOV lane.

The semi dragged the car for about 1,500 feet before coming to a stop.

"I kept looking and saw the car getting smaller and smaller and smaller," she said. "I remember I closed my eyes and I started thinking, 'I don't want to die! I don't want to die! I don't want to die! I want to see my mom again. And then I opened my eyes because I was like, 'wait, why is this still going on? Like what is it that's taking him so long to stop?'"

Pictures sent to NBC 5 from a viewer show the scene in the 4000 block of Interstate 30 in Mesquite.

Montaño's Chevy Cobalt is almost unrecognizable.

But what she won't soon forget is how perfect strangers ran to her aid.

"I just couldn't believe how many people stopped on the other side: Come to my car! I have A/C! I'll give you water," she remembered them saying. "And it was all colors and races and they all stopped to help me out. That was amazing."

Once out of her car, Montaño went looking for the driver of the semi.

"'Were you the driver,'" she asked man after man. "'Yes ma'am' and he was just staring at the floor and I said: 'Hey, don't worry about it. I'm okay, you're okay, it's just a car.'"

Montaño said she asked her husband if he wanted to go with her to run errands, but he declined.

"I would have been dead," she said because she would have been in the passenger seat.

Montaño said she believes divine intervention saved her life.

"My dad passed away in 2005 and ever since he passed away little things I always feel he's looking over me," she said.

Protection, a helping hand and a second chance at life.

"I feel very blessed," Montaño said.

The driver of the semi is from Pennsylvania and was cited for making an unsafe lane change, according to a report.