A woman who accidentally drove off the Meaford harbour wall yesterday was rescued by some members of a local sailing school.
One of the Directors of Sail Georgian Bay Kyle Gilas says he saw the car head into the water while attending a meeting just before 6 p.m. Monday evening. He and others sprung into action, and ended up smashing a window to pull the driver to safety from her sinking vehicle.
“I was the first one that saw it and I didn’t see it approach the harbour wall, but I saw the shape in the corner of my eye sort of flip off the harbour wall and looked over and realized it was a car. So I ran over and realized there was someone in it,” says Gilas.
Gilas says another member of the sailing school called emergency services while he ran to his truck to grab a glass-breaking hammer.
“By the time I got back with that, our two coaches were already in the water so I got it to them and then our third coach went in with a life ring. There was a boat nearby where the car went in and they were able to … (get) up against the side of the boat while trying to smash out the windows,” says Gilas.
Gilas adds he, another director, and a bystander got on the boat, and grabbed onto the back bumper of the submerged vehicle to keep it from sinking anymore.
The two sailing coaches in the water were able to smash the rear window of the car and pull the woman out.
“As soon as she was out, we let go of the car and it just sunk to the bottom of the harbour and then they were able to get her in the life ring over to the ladder,” says Gilas. “Then maybe a minute later, that was when the first emergency services arrived,” says Gilas.
He says the whole ordeal lasted about two to three minutes.
“We did not have a lot of time to react to that, but thankfully we were able to get her out of the vehicle,” says Gilas. “The coaches are all trained to deal with boating emergencies and whatnot for sailing, but nothing like this. I think it still helped having all that training.”
Grey County thanked Gilas, as well as coaches Nathan Brand, Griffin Dauphinee, Ilian Halbertsma, and bystander Rebecca Vail for their bravery in a social media post.
Bayshore Broadcasting has reached out to Grey Bruce OPP for more information but did not hear back by publication time.
