A good Samaritan helped Florida firefighters and police officers keep a young boy from drowning after his family's car plummeted into a retention pond last week.
The accident involving a car carrying a father and his two sons—ages 4 and 12—happened at around 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Orlando, the Orlando Sentinel reports. According to police, the father swerved to avoid an animal, and he accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the brakes, flipping the vehicle into a retention pond.
Before the crash, Jose Diaz saw the car in front of him lose control, and once the vehicle hit the water, he called 9-1-1 before going into the pond to help the family. Diaz tried to get the 4-year-old boy out of his car seat, but when he couldn't, he kept the child's head above water until rescuers arrived.
“I didn’t think about that at the moment, just take action,” Díaz told the Sentinel. “That was the main worry. … You try to save the life of the kids.”
Once firefighters and police reached the scene, they eventually were able to pull the young boy from the pond in a matter of minutes before rescuing the father from the vehicle. The 12-year-old was able to escape the car and the water on his own.
“Thanks to the quick and collaborative actions from the officers, the members of the Orlando Fire Department, and the good Samaritan, the family was able to escape this dangerous situation with only minor injuries,” police said in a statement.
