Cops Take Plunge, Save Woman From Sinking Car In Margate Canal
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FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - A woman is fortunate to be alive, after being rescued from her sinking car by two police officers Monday afternoon.
Carolann Brown, 57, lost control of her Hyundai Elantra on Copans Road in Margate, and sped into a deep canal behind an office complex.
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Margate police Ofc. George Wooley and Coconut Creek Ofc. Larry Christopher arrived on the scene simultaneously.
"She looked frantic," said Officer Wooley. "She was pounding on the window, trying to break the window out from the inside."
Neither officer hesitated, tossing off their heavy gear and plunging into the water.
Wooley handed Christopher a device he had with him, a light weight hammer, that can be used to smash a car's window.
"It was going down quickly, it was a matter of seconds," Christopher sad. "We broke out the back window. We grabbed her hand, and the car was going down as we pulled her out."
Christopher suffered multiple cuts on his right hand from shattered glass.
The officers, exhausted, grabbed the woman by each arm and swam with her halfway across the canal to the shore where other officers pulled her up on the bank.
It's not clear how Brown came to lose control of her car, and zoom into the canal behind the office complex. She had no visible injuries, but was taken to Northwest Medical Center to be checked out as a precaution.
For the police officers, it was just another day at the office.
Monday's life-saving efforts marked Ofc. Christopher's third underwater rescue - testament to the danger that South Florida's many canals can pose to motorists.
Police say every driver should keep one of the window-busting hammers in their car in the event they should find themselves submerged. The device has a Velcro attachment that keeps it in place, allowing the driver to retrieve it quickly. Water pressure from the outside makes it almost impossible to break a window from the inside without a special device.
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