Good Samaritans help save driver from pond

Published 10:25 am Wednesday, December 14, 2016

By Nancy Lebens

MPR.org/90.1 FM

A woman who drove her car into an icy pond Tuesday morning escaped with just some cuts, thanks to the help of a few good Samaritans.

Email newsletter signup

The driver’s window fogged up, so she tried to pull over, according to Minnesota State Patrol Lt. Tiffani Nielson.

Instead, she ended up in a holding pond near a ramp at the intersection of Hwy. 169 and I-494 in Bloomington.

The driver didn’t realize where she was until water started seeping in, Nielson said. Several passersby stopped to help get her out of the sinking vehicle.

One pulled a pallet off a truck and set it on the ice to distribute weight as they got alongside the vehicle. The vehicle had crashed through the ice and was under water almost to the top of the cab, Nielson said. Nielson said the woman smashed a window with a fire extinguisher, but adds other objects would have worked.