She redefined the carpool.
A July 4th hero dove into action Tuesday when a woman drove her car into a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, apartment complex swimming pool — pulling her out of the sinking vehicle as shocked residents looked on.
Witnesses told Local 10 they came out of their homes after hearing a loud crash and saw the sedan in the pool with its female driver trapped inside.
The driver had crashed through a fence next to the complex’s parking lot before belly-flopping into the pool, with residents speculating that she accidentally hit the gas instead of her brakes.
T.J. Yarborough, who lives at the complex, quickly jumped into the water and saw that the panicked woman could not exit the vehicle.
He tried to open the door but it wouldn’t budge.
A woman was trapped in her car after she drove into a pool. Local 10
T.J. Yarborough pulled the woman out. Local 10
Yarborough said the electric windows still worked. Local 10
The vehicle was pulled out of the water. Local 10“The water was coming up and (I) couldn’t get the door open, but the window — the electric still works so the windows went down and I told her, ‘It’s time to go,’” Yarborough told the station. “I got her out of the car, but she’s good and she’s safe.”
The shaken driver, who didn’t want to be identified, was thankfully uninjured.
Emergency crews eventually fished the damaged car out of the pool, as residents expressed their relief that the normally crowded swimming area was clear at the time of the crash.
“At least no lives were hurt,” resident Sonia Valentin told Local 10. “That’s what counts. Especially on a day like today.”
Police continue to investigate the cause of the accident.
