What to Know
- Three men dived into a marina in Long Beach to rescue a woman and her son trapped in a truck
- The truck went through a metal fence and into the water
- Rescuers quickly jumped into action and it was all caught on video
Three men were hailed as heroes on Monday after they dived into a marina in Long Beach to rescue a woman and her son trapped in a pickup truck that plunged into the water.
The truck went through a metal fence and into the water. The man driving it had a boot or a cast on that may have been a factor as to why he put the gas on instead of the brake.
Rescuers quickly jumped into action and it was all caught on video. "So this frickin car comes flying through the parking lot," said a man in the video shot seconds after it happened.
"I heard the crash behind me," said Capt. Jeff Jones, Seacoast Yachts, who shot the video. "I turn around in time to see the crash go in the water."
Three men, including a lifeguard, jumped in. They got the woman out, identified by a local newspaper as 87-year-old Mary Watkins. "It seemed like an eternity, but we knew it was a matter of seconds and minutes to get them out of that car," said Jeff Perez, one of the rescuers.
The driver's side was more difficult. Watkins' son, Larry, first handed their chihuahua out the window. But then his window started rolling up, forcing one rescuer to try to hold it down.
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Watkins and her son were both pulled out the truck, cold and wet, but unharmed. One rescuer said Watkins had a sense of humor about it, joking about her hair and lipstick getting wet.
