When living in a smaller neighborhood, it isn’t often that something happens that shakes the whole block up and spurs everyone into action .
That’s exactly what happened in the suburban streets of Manotick, Ottawa when a car seen driving directly atop a nearby river crashed through the ice and began to sink. Though the driver was rather nonchalant about the ordeal, residents were quick to get to the rescue and make sure she made it safely back to land.
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The residents of a neighborhood in Ottawa, Ontario had to act quickly earlier this week.
Thanks to a bright yellow car that was speeding down the mostly-frozen Rideau River before falling through the ice with the driver still inside.
Said driver was thankfully able to climb out and get on the back windshield as the car slowly continued to sink into the river.
Those who live along the river quickly jumped into action.
Including one man named Zachary King, who told CTV News Ottawa , “So luckily one of my other neighbors, Rob Crober, had a rope that he had got, so he ran back to his place to grab one of his kayaks off his kayak rack. And I was untangling the rope, he got back, we tied the rope to the kayak and then just got it out to here.”
They appear to have reached her just in time.
Videos taken of the rescue show that not long after she made it onto the kayak, her car completely sank.
“It’s like everything worked out perfectly. Got her on the kayak, pulled her in. And as soon as we pulled her in, the car went under. Fully.”
The driver seemed rather calm throughout all of this.
Calm enough that she can be seen taking a light-hearted selfie while standing atop her sinking car, having almost been stuck in the freezing waters herself.
Even when paramedics arrived at the scene, she denied treatment, and seemed to walk away completely uninjured.
It was definitely an exciting evening for those who witnessed the event.
Even those who saw the car on the river before it broke through, like local Sacha Gera whose home security cameras captured footage of it as his children played outside.
“You don’t expect your kids to have to watch out for cars zipping down on the frozen river,” he said.
The situation wrapped itself up, though.
Well, except for the car still being in the river.
The driver was charged with one count of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle under the Criminal Code of Canada.
Local police used this incident to remind everyone that ‘No Ice Is Safe Ice’ and to be careful this winter!
h/t: CTV News Ottawa
