China
16:47, 31-Aug-2017
Samaritans rescue two after vehicle plunges into river
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A mother and daughter avoided near death last Thursday as Samaritans rescued them after their vehicle accidentally plunged into the Hanjiang River in Xiangyang City of central China's Hubei Province.
Surveillance footage of the frightening accident shows the vehicle going in reverse as it crosses between traffic on a road. It then crashed through a barrier before falling into the river below.
The entire accident took no more than 11 seconds, and was noticed by a swimmer, surnamed He. He and another pedestrian rushed to the spot to save the two people in water.
"I was teaching people how to swim and I saw the mother and daughter struggling. So I ran from tens of meters away. The vehicle's windows were open. The daughter climbed out first, but the mother was still inside. So I grabbed her and pulled her out," said He.
He said the mother and daughter had no serious injuries when they were rescued. One resident at the scene called for an ambulance to carry the two to a hospital. Police also arrived to handle the accident.
"What we've learned at the scene is that a female driver may have mistaken the accelerator for the brake, resulting in the car backing into the river," said Zhang Zhenghe, a traffic police officer with the Xiangyang Public Security Bureau.
956km