Tourist rescued after accidentally driving into pond near Boston
ARLINGTON, Mass. Good Samaritans rushed to rescue a woman from her sinking SUV after she accidentally drove into Arlington’s Spy Pond Friday afternoon, CBS Boston reports.
Video taken from the shore shows three people swimming out to the woman’s Ford Edge.
“She was very, very scared and had taken in water,” said Dan Frazier of Boxford. “And she, she knew she was dying. I mean, she just figured this was it.”
The image is still vivid for Frazier and Kenneth Chapman of a 68-year-old Medford woman stuck sinking in her car.
On Friday afternoon, the two men said they heard a splash, then saw the aftermath.
An eyewitness recorded video as Frazier, Chapman and one other dove in to save her.
The first man opened the door, water rushed in and the car appeared to sink.
“He got sucked down a little bit at the same time and then, what seemed to be forever was about ten seconds,” Frazier said. “She popped up.”
As the man grew tired, Frazier took over, grabbing a cushion for the woman to float on.
Chapman, who is visiting from Sydney, Australia, joined him about 20 feet from shore until finally she was safe.
“She was saying ‘thank you Jesus,’” Chapman recalled.
The woman was treated for mild hypothermia but was conscious and alert when she was transported to the hospital. Police say the woman was trying to back into a parking space on Linwood Circle when she drove over a curb and plunged into the pond.
Crews worked through the afternoon and into the night to pull out her car with no luck.
Frazier and Chapman said they were lucky to be there at the critical moment.
“When you think about the coincidence of that, it’s just breathtaking,” Chapman said.