Diane Boyington and her family had something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday. Boyington, her daughter Ashley and her grandson Layne were involved in a car accident Nov. 25 that could have been much worse were it not for some unlikely heroes.

Ashley Danae Reed, 25, of Perdido, was stopped in traffic on U.S. Highway 31 North behind an Atmore prison work-release van when her 2006 Chevrolet Silverado was rear-ended by a 2004 SUV driven by Mandi Michelle Hall, a 31-year-old Atmore woman.

“We measured today  and the toolbox missed my grandson’s head by five and a half inches,” Boyington said.

Boyington said they were trapped in their truck after the collision when several of the inmates came to their aid.

“If it wasn’t for those prisoners, we’d have been a lot worse off,” she said.

“The prisoners that weren’t hurt were there and got us out of the truck,” she said. “I was in an ant bed and they got me out and brushed the ants off me. They brushed them off my pants and off my shoes.

“My 9-month-old grandson was screaming, and one of the men picked him up and started cuddling him and started praying for him. He stopped crying like someone had turned a faucet off, and he started laughing,” Boyington said.

She said many people think prisoner and automatically think bad.

“I want people to know what these men did,” she said.

Boyington said one man stayed with her, holding her hand, until paramedics arrived.

“When the paramedic got there, I was just a squeezing that man’s hand to death,” she said. “I said ‘don’t you leave me,’ and he said he would stay as long as I needed him.”

“It’s the Lord’s blessing we’re alive,” she said.

Traffic on the highway was backed up for at least a mile following the accident, which happened at 2:55 p.m. as school was letting out at Perdido.

Boyington, her daughter and grandson, Layne Reed, were taken to North Baldwin Infirmary where they were treated and released. Hall was also taken to North Baldwin.

From the Atmore corrections van, Stanley Duncan, 46; Randy Griffin, 28; Gerald Johnson, 32; Michael Williams, 50; Herbert Reeves, 40; Charles Upshaw, 43; and Oliver Murry, 48, were all taken to area hospitals.

According to Bay Minette Fire Department Chief Phil Bryars, none of the injuries appeared to be life threatening.