VIRGINIA BEACH (WTKR) — A woman was rescued after driving her car into the water near the Back Deck and Bubba’s Seafood on Shore Drive in Virginia Beach on Friday afternoon, a manager at Bubba’s confirmed to News 3.
Video shared with WTKR News 3 depicts a chaotic scene in the water as what appeared to be four individuals jumped into the frigid water to try and break the person out of the black SUV.
News 3’s Colter Anstaett spoke with Jeremy Way, a U.S. Navy aviation rescue swimmer who was dining at the Back Deck when he saw the car go in the water. Way told Anstaett that his training kicked in and he immediately jumped in the water.
“I was like, ‘is anybody in the car?’ As soon as somebody said yes, I had already started to pull my phone, my wallet, my knife out of my pocket,” Way said. “I got to about right here, saw that there was a car in there, and I just dove right in.”
When they reached the woman at the window, he reported the woman said “I don’t wanna be here, let me die.” But after some coaxing, she agreed to let them rescue her.
But at that point, according to Way, the electronics in the car were not operating, which forced the Good Samaritans to have to break the windows to get her out. By the time the woman and one of the rescuers started to go up, the whole vehicle was underwater.
“It was just in the nick of time, like a movie,” Way said.
Way’s hands are cut up and bandaged from breaking car windows during the rescue, but he said it is worth it.
“Some girl is alive because of a couple Good Samaritans,” Way said.
Virginia Beach police said this incident was reported at 1:17 p.m. and confirmed they are investigating.
News 3 Chief Meteorologist David Aldrich said the water temperature in the area was around 45° at the time of the rescue.
This comes about two years after a man drove his car off the Virginia Beach fishing pier in an apparent suicide.
Way said he’s had some mental health struggles himself and has a message for anyone who may be struggling.
“There is help out there. There are avenues. There’s the suicide hotline, there’s people out there. You actually probably do have friends that care and love you,” said Way.
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