CBS2 Exclusive: Driver Stops To Save Woman From Sinking Car In Hawthorne, N.J.
HAWTHORNE, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- The roads were so icy Sunday, a woman in Hawthorne, New Jersey wound up losing control of her car and plunging into a pond.
The woman was driving east on Goffle Road around 9:30 a.m. when her car jumped a curb, ran over a tree and landed in the icy water.
As CBS2's Brian Conybeare reported, Don McEwan happened to be driving by and saw the submerged car. He took off his coat and boats and jumped in to help the complete stranger.
"She was saying, 'I'm going to die, I'm doing to die!'" McEwan said. "The car was filling with water and I asked her if anyone else was in the car, and she said no. I began to try and break the windows."
Two Hawthorne police officers arrived and helped break the window and pull the woman to safety. But Chief Richard McAuliffe said the officers didn't want to be called heroes.
"Officer Daily and Officer Vega truly went above and beyond," he said. "It's part of the normal day-to-day things that we have to do. It's the civilians that we have to look at and the people that didn't have any obligation to pull over and make some sort of attempt to rescue somebody."
"If it happened to my wife, or myself, or anybody, I think in this town it's like that. If it wasn't me, I think the next person driving by would've jumped in," McEwan added.
The driver, whose name has not been released, was checked out at a local hospital and has returned home. She's said to be doing just fine.
