Bruno Visona was on his way to baseball practice in Port Alberni around 5:30 p.m. with a car full of his team’s equipment when he noticed a car in front of him on Gertrude Street “sitting funny” in the road. The car had hit a bridge abutment after the driver suffered a medical emergency, according to the Port Alberni RCMP.
“Three passengers all stepped out because the airbags went off, and I could see the smoke from the airbags in the compartment,” said Visona, who pulled over to help.
All of a sudden the car started backing up, went over the sidewalk, through some bushes down the embankment and splashed into the water of Rogers Creek beside the bridge. Visona said he didn’t know anyone was in the car until he heard one of the passengers yelling, “My grandmother’s in the car, somebody please help her!”
“I jumped through the prickles and into the water. It was up to my waist,” he said. “The car was starting to float downstream. The window was open so I grabbed it.”
He could see that there was a woman slumped over the steering wheel, unconscious.
“As soon as I opened the car door it started filling with water,” he said. He hollered for help and another man entered the water to help Visona keep the woman’s head above water as he released her seatbelt. The two men were able to get the woman to shore where an off-duty firefighter that Visona knew was waiting to help.
The woman regained consciousness on shore; when an ambulance arrived, Visona—who has his Level 3 industrial first aid ticket—carried on to his baseball practice.
According to RCMP, the driver had experienced a medical event and tried to pull over near the bridge, but the vehicle continued over the embankment and into the water. Three youth passengers were able to escape the car before it entered the creek.
The driver and passengers were treated by first responders at the scene. None of the car’s occupants sustained “serious” injuries as a result of the crash, say RCMP, but they were taken to West Coast General Hospital for further assessment.
Cst. Richard Johns, media relations officer for the Port Alberni RCMP, praised the actions of people who stopped to help after the crash.
“The selfless acts that were displayed by those who stopped to help show what our small town is about,” said Johns.
Johns added that the RCMP have been in contact with the Ministry of Environment to ensure there were no fluids spilled into the creek following the crash.