Bodycam video shows Florida deputies' water rescue of driver trapped in submerged car
Some dramatic body camera footage shows how deputies with the Martin County Sheriff's Office in southeast Florida rescued a man whose vehicle had flipped upside down into a watery canal.
About 1 a.m. ET, the victim's vehicle crashed into the water after attempting to avoid an animal in the road, the sheriff's office said in a post on Facebook.
The crash impact caused the driver's iPhone to send an SOS signal to the county's emergency dispatch center, the office said. It directed deputies and emergency responders to the scene on a "dark desolate road" near Indiantown about 40 miles northwest of West Palm Beach, police said.
When deputies arrived, they found a vehicle upside down in a canal and the victim, later identified as a 38-year-old man, "could be heard pleading for help, and our deputies wasted no time jumping in the water to calm and save the man," the office said.
The first of two videos shows at least two deputies wading into the canal as a third responder shines a light down onto the scene. "Hey, you got air buddy?" one deputy asks.
The victim responds unintelligibly but the deputy says, "We're going to work our way in."
As they try to open the door of the upside down vehicle the door handle breaks off. In the Martin County Sheriff's Office's second video the deputies get the door open and ask the man if he's pinned anywhere else. "I'm cold," he says.
"He's not stuck," one deputy says. But the man cannot move – "I'm freezing," he says, with a voice affected by shivering – so the deputies support him to the point where he begins to wade out of the crashed car before the video ends.
The victim was taken to a hospital where he is expected to recover, the sheriff's office said.
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Smartphone crash detection tech is lifesaver
The office posted two videos from deputies' bodycam footage onto Facebook on Wednesday and called the cell phone feature "amazing technology" and credited "amazing work," by deputies.
Apple's latest devices – the iPhone 14 and Apple Watch 8, Apple Watch SE (2nd generation), and Apple Watch Ultra – can automatically call emergency services. Google's Pixel 3 and 4 can, too.
The sheriff's office suggested folks be aware if they have the technology in their devices as it can literally be a lifesaver. "It’s technology you may not even realize you have, but this dramatic rescue should remind you of its importance, as well as the importance of sharp dispatchers and brave deputies," the office said.
Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Florida deputies bodycam video shows trapped man rescued in watery car
