Tiburon man saves driver after car plunges into pool
A Tiburon man sprang into action last week to rescue a senior driver who mistakenly hit the gas at a Janet Way apartment complex and went over a curb, through a fence and down a 30-foot embankment before her car landed in the deep end of the building’s swimming pool.
No one was injured in the accident, which took place shortly before 10 a.m. Oct. 10, but resident Gregg Morgan was able to help the 71-year-old escape before first responders arrived.
“What I heard was a very loud crash, and that triggered to me instantly that somebody might have gotten hurt,” said Morgan, who lives in the apartment closest to the pool. “It was out of the ordinary. It was enough to jar me, of course.”
Morgan said he immediately opened the door of his unit and ran outside to see the car sinking in the pool. He said the driver had already taken off her seatbelt and opened the windows, but she was sandwiched between three airbags and the seat.
“I had the impulse not to hurt her, so I was gentler than I should have been,” he said.
When he opened the door and water rushed into the car, “I had a small panic that I had blown it,” Morgan said, adding that the car sank rapidly. He said he told himself, “Grab her; doesn’t matter if you break her arms.”
The car immediately sank as he yanked her out the window and helped her up the pool ladder, he said. Morgan said the woman asked him to call her husband, and he came to shake his hand and almost cried.
“I was just reacting,” Morgan said. “Somebody needed help and I was helping and I could help them and I just reacted.”
The driver, who was the sole occupant of the car, told police she confused the gas and brake pedals, Tiburon police Capt. Jarrod Yee said.
It took about 2½ hours for a tow company to remove the car from the pool, Southern Marin Fire Protection District Capt. Michael Coleman said, first using a winch to move it from the deep end to the shallow end. They were then able to lift and drain the car, which was filled with water, bringing it over the fence and back into the parking lot.
“It was remarkable how little damage she did,” Morgan said.
The car damaged the fence, a bench by the pool and concrete around and in the pool; the estimated amount of the damage was undetermined by The Ark’s press deadline.
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