Bret Baier Shares Details from Horrific Car Crash in Emotional Return to Anchor Desk

Image credit: @BretBaier/Twitter
Image credit: @BretBaier/Twitter
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In an emotional first appearance on Fox News since Bret Baier and his family were in a terrifying car accident, the primetime anchor said he had to be on air “to show you I was OK.”

Following a weekend ski trip in Montana, Baier, his wife and their two sons were caught in a harrowing car accident on the return trip Monday. Everyone walked away from the crash with minor injuries — a miracle that has the Fox anchor counting his blessings.

Recounting the crash, Baier said he was driving and was roughly two miles away from the airport when he hit a patch of ice, sending the SUV he and his family were in whirling into a busy intersection.

“We slid into the intersection of a busy road and into the path of a big pickup truck which slammed into our driver’s side door, the airbags deployed, the windows shattered,” he said. “We careened into a ditch and flipped sideways. And I started to try to push open the passenger door to get us out.”

A passing driver named Zach Black stopped to hold the passenger door open while each one of Baier’s family members escaped the upturned vehicle. David, who was driving the pickup truck, called EMS and the police.

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David, Baier said, “was concerned about our family first and foremost.”

“Montana Highway Patrol quickly arrived,” the anchor recalled. “EMS paramedics from Belgrade and Bozeman arrived quickly too, and we escaped with minor injuries. A concussion, 14 stitches on a chin, a jostled tooth and a sprained ankle.”

With tears welling up in his eyes, Baier thanked Zach, David and every one of the first responders who assisted him and his family following the car accident.

“Don’t take anything for granted,” he said, visibly emotional. “Every day is a blessing. Family is everything.”

What else happened?

After several tweets about the accident, a woman named Lisa Burns reached out to Baier. She told him David was a family friend who was taking her husband to the hospital for his cancer treatment. Burns described David as “a great guy.”

The Fox newscaster also received some support from one of his primetime competitors, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, who sent boxes of pizza to the Montana Highway Patrol and EMS personnel who rescued Baier and his family.

“To Trooper Velasquez and everyone at the Bozeman Highway Patrol, with great respect for your rescue of Bret Baier and his family,” the note from Maddow’s team read. It was signed, “From Bret’s friends at the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC.”

In a tweet of his own, Baier thanked Maddow for providing lunch to the first responders and said his team at “Special Report” would be purchasing a meal for them Wednesday.