Trapped driver pulled from car in Holly Hill pond
HOLLY HILL, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - When a car plummeted into a pond, some quick action by a Volusia County sheriff's deputy and several Holly Hill police officers got the driver of the vehicle to safety.
At about 9 a.m. on Monday, 911 dispatchers started recieving calls from onlookers near 10th St. and Nova Road. The callers said a woman in an SUV had just driven straight into a retention pond and was not moving inside the car.
Volusia County Sheriff’s Senior Deputy David Wiggins was the first to arrive on the scene and found that the woman would not respond to his calls.
“I could see the lady slumped over in her car. Sitting there but slumped over in the passenger seat,” said Wiggins.
Wiggins said all of the doors he could reach and the back hatch were locked, but he spotted the driver’s window open, so that’s where he knew he needed to go.
“I decided it would be quicker and faster just to go over the top of the vehicle and through the driver’s side window which was already down,” said Wiggins.
Fellow cops caught pictures of Wiggins climbing to the top of the SUV and getting to the woman. At that point Holly Hill Police officers arrived to help the effort.
“He was struggling with the seatbelt so I threw him my pocket knife, we cut the seat belt off, then myself and Officer Mosier who arrived shortly, we went in the back of the car,” said Lt. Chris Yates.
The team was able to pull the woman out of the vehicle, up the steep banks of the pond, and get her to an ambulance to be sent for medical assistance. A family member of the woman said Monday afternoon that she was recovering thanks to the quick work of those officers.