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Baby, aunt rescued after tree falls on car in Brandon

News Channel 8 photo by PAUL LAMISON

Hillsborough County deputies and rescue workers have freed a baby and her aunt who were trapped in a car in Brandon.

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TBO.com

Published: July 8, 2009

Updated: 07/08/2009 02:06 pm

BRANDON - The dark-haired baby nursed a bottle, oblivious to all the commotion around her.

Her aunt, though, was still shaking.

A tree fell on top of Roxano Moyano's Toyota Corolla as the pair drove down Forest Circle in Brandon just before 9 a.m., shattering the rear window and sending glass flying.

"I was just driving down the street towards my mom's house and the tree just fell," Moyano said. "I had tree trunks under the car and the front was elevated."

A neighbor rushed to help.

"When I walked over to her, the car was sandwiched between the two forks of the tree and you could see the windshield busted out of the back," Wayne Gideons said. "It's just unbelievable that they survived."

"I'm still shaking," Moyano said. "(The baby) had glass all over her hair."

She held 11-month-old Izabella Cintron in her arms as she relived those first few minutes.

"She got some scratches on her, but that was it," Moyano said.

"When I got here, I just started crying," Izabella's mother, Ibelisse Moyano, said. "There's glass all over her car seat and I'm just happy they're both OK."

Roxana Moyano was able to get out of the car and free her niece.

The tree was 16 inches in diameter and had to be cut up so it could be removed from the top of the vehicle, Hillsborough County sheriff's office spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

Authorities don't know what caused the tree to fall. Gideons said the area has had a lot of heavy rain and lightning strikes lately, and several trees have had to be trimmed as a result.

"It's crazy," Ibelisse Moyano said. "Never would I have imagined a tree could fall like this."

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