Landscaper, Elderly Woman OK After Car Plunges Into Pines Canal
PEMBROKE PINES (CBS4) - A car slammed into a worker cleaning up debris along a canal in Pembroke Pines Wednesday sending the worker and the car into the water.
A police officer who happened to be in the shopping plaza and several Good Samaritans jumped in to help rescue the worker and the elderly female driver.
Travis Parham was driving his mother to get her taxes done when he saw the commotion at the plaza on Pines Boulevard just west of University Drive.
"When I first saw it I thought it was fake because the car's in the water and everyone's standing on the side," he said. "I thought maybe it was empty. When I saw the cop jump in I knew it was serious."
Parham jumped in and swam to the woman in the car.
He said she was paralyzed with fear.
"She was in shock," he said. "She didn't know what to do."
Parham said he and the police officer helped the woman escape through the window of her car. She was ok.
Meanwhile, Shannon Madej said he was trying to assist his employee.
Madej said he saw the elderly woman drive over two curbs, plow into some trees and hit his worker from behind.
"He was actually trapped under the car when it went in the water," Madej said.
Madej said he dropped his cellphones and jumped in the water as his employee struggled to get free in the water. Madej helped him to land.
The worker was taken to the hospital and was expected to be released Wednesday night.
Madej said the whole ordeal unfolded quickly.
"Fast that's all I know," he said. "I had to tell my guy get out of the way and by then it was over."
By nightfall divers located the submerged car. Police said they would remove it on Thursday.
Investigators say charges are pending in the case.
