Cop Uses Abandoned Kayak To Save Woman Trapped in Sinking Car
What do you do when the unexpected happens? I suspect that most of us like to think that we’d respond with aplomb.
But I’m not so sure about that. So much of our life rotates around a routine that a truly surprising occurrence tends to throw us off balance.
Fortunately, some people manage to keep their wits about them in even the strangest circumstances. Bill and Linda Tilley are such people, as well as a Trenton, Michigan, police sergeant.
Trenton police sergeant grabs nearby kayak, goes into Detroit River to save woman in sinking car https://t.co/b1ZXGYcpJW pic.twitter.com/cPpSc2Dq1N
— The News-Herald (@NewsHeraldMI) December 18, 2018
According to WXYZ, the Tilleys were out for a drive on Dec. 17. Their course took them down by the Detroit River.
While they were peering out at the body of water, they noticed a splash — a really big splash. In fact, it was so large that Linda thought a bird had plunged into the river looking for food.
“I said, ‘Did you see that big splash?’” Linda Tilley recalled. “(Bill) said, ‘Yeah,’ (and) I said, ‘What was it?’
“He said it was a cormorant. I said, ‘It was not,’ and so I said, ‘Stop the car.’”
It turned out that Linda Tilley was right. A car had made that big splash, and it still had a passenger inside.
A woman in her 40s had somehow lost control of her vehicle and it had landed in the drink. As Bill and Linda Tilley watched, it slowly began to sink into the Detroit River.
According to WPBF, Bill Tilley called 911 and said, “There’s a car in the river. It just went in on the Trenton side of the Trenton River.
“There is someone in the car. They’re tapping their brake lights. The car is floating.”
Soon enough, a sergeant from the Trenton Police Department arrived, but he faced a dilemma: How in the world could he get out to the vehicle that was in the middle of the river and rapidly filling with water?
Instead of waiting for more help, the sergeant turned to the tools he had at hand. He spied someone’s kayak and, scooping up a paddle, the sergeant seized it and began to make his way out into the river.
“He grabbed a kayak from a house and paddled to the car,” Director of Police and Fire Services Steven Voss told The News-Herald. “He broke the window out with a paddle and pulled her out.”
Linda Tilley praised the sergeant for his ingenuity. “It was quick thinking on their part to just grab a kayak and get out there, because the car was starting to sink by then, and shortly after the kayak went back to shore, the car was gone.”
Neither the sergeant nor the woman was identified by name, and the woman was taken to an area hospital. Reports say that she was alert on the ride over.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
