A 75-year-old woman was saved from a potentially deadly situation by a Marysville family after her vehicle ended up overturned in a canal. According to ABC10, the accident occurred just after noon on Monday, when the woman, later identified as Robbie Carpenter, lost control of her car and crashed into an irrigation canal on Larkin Road, with her vehicle coming to rest upside down in the water, leaving her submerged.
Acting on instincts that seem near-cinematic, Cyle Johnson, 28, and his wife Ashley Martin, 27, aided by their 6-year-old daughter who first noticed the accident and alerted her parents, performed a rescue that the California Highway Patrol is calling heroic. The daughter playing in front of the house where they had been visiting on Larkin Road, saw the crash and ran inside to tell her parents, first alerting them to the emergency unfolding just beyond their temporary threshold. Jumping immediately over the fence into the canal is what the father did, as told to FOX40.
The family found Carpenter trapped with her head underwater and unresponsive. Cyle Johnson then reached into the vehicle, unlocked the door, and managed to force it open to access the trapped driver. An unknown passerby came to assist, providing a knife that was used to cut the seatbelt, freeing Carpenter from the vehicle. "Had it not been for the heroic actions of Cyle, Ashley, and their daughter, this would have been a much different outcome," the California Highway Patrol remarked in a statement obtained by ABC10.
Carpenter was then transported to Adventist Health and Rideout with what has been described as minor injuries. The unknown good Samaritan had stopped to assist and provided a knife that was indispensable in cutting the seatbelt, epitomizing the often understated power of community and the willingness of strangers to lend a hand in dire situations. Acknowledging Johnson's bravery, California Highway Patrol added, "Cyle is that one guy you need in your time of need!” as reported by FOX40, recalling his previous involvement in a fatal crash incident where he also offered help.
