PLAINFIELD, Ind. — A Plainfield police officer is credited with saving a woman from a sinking vehicle Tuesday morning.
A woman called 911 around 7 a.m. to report her vehicle was sinking in a pond in the 1200 block of Stanley Road.
"Please help me, please help me, I'm drowning," she said in the call.
"Listen to me," the dispatcher told her. "Take your feet and use both feet and kick that back side window. Kick it as hard as you can and keep kicking it."
The trapped woman didn't know it at the time, but help was already there.
Aaron Thomas told 13News he pulled over when he saw the car in the pond and helped a truck driver who got in the water to try and save her.
"He went out, and he couldn't get her back, so he got on the bank and told me to call 911," said Thomas.
Police arrived at that point.
"I said, 'Do you have anything to pop the window with? [The officer] was like, 'No, I don't.' So I gave him my knife, and he swam out there like it was one of his kids and popped the back window."
Sumner took his equipment off before getting into the pond. After breaking the window, Sumner used the knife to cut off the airbag and found the female driver on the phone with 911, barely above the rising water in the vehicle.
Sumner was able to pull the driver out and took her safely to shore.
Sumner sustained a cut on his arm from breaking the window but was released at the scene.
Police said the driver was taken to a hospital for further evaluation but is expected to be OK.
Plainfield firefighters and Whitlow's Towing were able to get the vehicle out of the pond.
Thomas called the rescue a group effort, where everyone did their part to save someone's life.
"It's something that I hope people would do if they see something or somebody needs help," Thomas said.
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