Good Samaritan Rescues Driver After Car Plunges Into N.J. Pond
HAWTHORNE, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A driver plunged into a New Jersey pond this past weekend, and she said she thought she was going to die.
As CBS2's Brian Conybeare reported, the 23-year-old from Paterson lost control during the icy weather Sunday morning, and the vehicle quickly sank with the woman still trapped inside.
Seconds count when a car plunges into an ice-covered pond and starts sinking.
"I just kept thinking, 'I don't want to die! I don't want to die!'" said Fatuma Kamara.
Kamara was on her way to work at 9:30 a.m. Sunday when she hit a patch of ice and crashed right into the water off Goffle Brook Road in Hawthorne, New Jersey.
"I didn't even have time to react," she said. "I was just in shock! I was just screaming!"
But a Good Samaritan stepped in for a dramatic rescue.
"The car was filling with water and I asked her if anyone else was in the car. She said no," said Good Samaritan Don McEwan. "I began trying to break the window."
McEwan spoke exclusively to CBS2 just hours after he called 911 and jumped into the water to try to save Kamara. But it took a Hawthorne police officer's baton to shatter the glass, and then McEwan and two officers pulled Kamara to safety.
"By the time they finally broke the car window and pulled me out, the water was up to my neck!" Kamara said.
Emergency crews wrapped Kamara in blankets and took her to the hospital, but she was released just two hours later.
"I came out with not even a scratch," she said.
Hawthorne Fire Chief Joe Speranza said Kamara was "extremely lucky."
Speranza said a trapped driver has less than a minute to escape before the car is completely submerged.
"The three-step process that they use is seatbelt, windows, and out," he said.
The chief recommends a device such as ResQMe, an automatic window punch only costs about $10. Conybeare easily broke a car window with a ResQMe himself as a demonstration.
Kamara did not have such a device, but she did have McEwan – who risked his life to save hers.
"I mean, he's a hero, definitely, because if he wasn't around, then I don't know," Kamara said, "and he's like, 'Don't worry, we're going to get you out, don't worry.' I'm just so thankful to be alive right now."
Chief Speranza said drivers increase their chances of survival if they do not panic, and if they remember to quickly unbuckle their seat belt and open the window – in that order.
