The woman battles to stay alive in the swirling river (Pic: AP)
Hero construction worker Jason grasps the woman's arm (Pic: AP)
Construction crew saves woman from Des Moines River
Wednesday, July 1, 2009, 11:39 AM
By Matt Kelley
Members of a construction crew are being credited with saving a life Tuesday afternoon in downtown Des Moines. A small boat capsized on the Des Moines River, dumping a man and woman into the water.
The Des Moines Fire Rescue team responded and found the man's body downstream, but the woman, who was wearing a life jacket, was still alive and trapped in the swirling water below the dam.
The rescue boat couldn't go in and the woman was too weak to grab a line -- so a nearby construction crew sprang into action. A workman was suspended from a crane and lowered down a long cable to the woman. He grabbed her and then the crane swung her into the rescue boat nearby. She's was last reported in stable condition.
The woman's husband was also in the boat and drowned before rescuers could get to him. The two have not been identified.
***************************************************************
Hero construction worker plucks woman from swirling river - dramatic pictures
This is the dramatic moment a hero construction worker rescued a drowning woman from a swirling river.
Jason Oglesbee dangles from a crane with his arm outstretched to reach the terrified woman who’s boat overturned near a dam on the Des Moines River in Iowa, America.
She was pulled to safety but her husband, who was with her when the boat overturned yesterday, tragically drowned.
“I saw the boat drift down, and he started it up and he hit the bridge base,' construction worker Joe Lowe told local media.
“Then he tried to wrap it up with an anchor or line and then I heard him holler at his wife, put your life jacket on. He didn't have one on.”
The lifejacket kept the woman afloat in the fierce river for more than an hour as Jason Oglesbee battled to reach her.
Des Moines police Sgt. Joe Gonzalez said the workers saw the woman floating in a boil and they tried to move a crane over to her.
No comments:
Post a Comment