Good Samaritans, Police Rescue Elderly Driver As Car Sinks In Lake St. Clair

DETROIT (WWJ) - An elderly driver has been rescued after his car went into Lake St. Clair on Monday in Grosse Pointe Farms.

According to authorities, the 65-year-old man was traveling westbound on Lake Shore Road, near Winthrop, when he lost control and drove over the median, then launching into the water.

Grosse Pointe Farms Public Safety Officer Michael Scott said that when officers arrived, about 20 to 30 people were standing around, some of them shooting video on their phones.

However, he said, a couple of Good Samaritans — who were in the area doing landscaping work — had entered the water to help the man who was trapped inside his car.

"The landscapers were using a rock and weren't really getting any good hits on it, so I retrieved an ax from my vehicle, and Keith Colombo got his baton, and that's how were were able to get access the window and get through," Scott said.

Lt. Andrew Rodgers said the group was able to pull the man out before the car sank underwater — but he was unresponsive.

"I'd say we were in the water five, seven minutes," Rodgers told WWJ's Sandra McNeill. "So it was five, seven minutes that seemed like an hour; and it's like...how much time do we have left?"

Police believe the driver suffered from some type of medical emergency which led to the incident.

The driver was taken by EMS to a local hospital for treatment where his condition was not immediately known. His name was not released.

Eastbound Lake Shore Road will remain closed in the area as an accident investigation continues.