Four men who jumped into action after a near-tragic car crash last spring were recognized for their bravery on Tuesday night.
Michael McCaig, Quentin Turnbull, Dan McKiel, and Stuart Cropley were awarded Certificates of Merit by the Saint John Police Force and the Saint John Board of Police Commissioners.
The four citizens rescued two children and a woman from a vehicle that landed on its roof in the water off Majors Brook Drive on March 21, 2020.
McCaig was working nearby that morning when he heard screaming. He rushed to the scene to find one person outside of the partially-submerged vehicle.
After learning there were still people trapped inside the vehicle, he jumped into the frigid waters to try and get them out.
“There was just a moment of desperation for somebody screaming and I happened to be in the right place at the right time,” said McCaig.
McCaig, with help from Turnbull, was able to get the unconscious woman out of the vehicle and began performing CPR on her.
It wasn’t until then that McCaig realized there were two young children in the back, including a young girl who was unconscious and upside down in a secured child seat.
McCaig went back into the water to try and get them out, but when he began suffering from hypothermia, Stewart and the others jumped in.
“I remember them struggling, trying to get the car seat out, and I knew that it was buckled into the car. So I got right in the car and I unbuckled it from the vehicle itself and pulled it all in one piece and passed it off,” said Stewart, who can barely swim himself.
“I went back to clear the vehicle and I saw the seven-year-old. I can remember her shirt and her eye colour — blonde hair, blue eyes and a pink shirt — and I remember what she was saying, looking for her mother. After coaxing her for a second, she grabbed my hand, I pulled her out, and that’s when the first firemen jumped into the water.”
The woman and youngest child were both rushed to the hospital, but thanks to the heroic efforts of the four men, they survived the ordeal.
Robert Bruce, chief of the Saint John Police Force, said the four citizens put their lives in danger to save others, and that deserves to be recognized.
“If they hadn’t of done what they did, people wouldn’t be alive today,” said Bruce.
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