SUNRISE, FLA. (WSVN) - Two police officers made a daring save after a car ended up in a canal.
Sunrise Police arrived to the scene at 1681 NW 60th Ave., Friday morning.
Cellphone video captured the officers using their batons to break the car’s driver’s side front window to pull the driver out.
Area resident Donna Hofer said she recorded the video after she saw the car go into the water.
“I saw the car, which was about right here, and he was just cruising, and he gets to about right there, and I just see him go airborne, and just ‘kapow!'” she said. “I rushed into the house, got my phone right away, yelled out to my boyfriend, ‘Somebody just went into the canal.'”
Detectives said the driver suffered a medical emergency, causing him to lose control of the vehicle, hit a fence and a tree before crashing into the canal.
“I kept looking to see who else was in the car, maybe. I only saw the one person in the car; it was the driver,” said Hofer.
Officers wasted no time after they arrived on the scene and immediately went into the water. Moments after they broke the car’s window, officers carried the driver safely to the bank of the canal.
“The two officers that got into the water, they got him out safely, and they put him on the stretcher,” said Hofer.
Dive teams also responded to the scene to verify whether anyone else was inside the vehicle, but the driver was the sole occupant.
Paramedics transported the driver to Florida Medical Center for an evaluation. He is expected to be OK.
Hofer said this is a rescue she will never forget.
“I’m still shaking. It was just unbelievable. I’ve never experienced anything in my 62 years of life like this,” she said. “I mean, it was just wicked, and I was just praying that the dude was OK.”
It was the first year on the job for one of the officers who pulled the driver out of the canal.
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