Elderly driver pulled from sunken car

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) -- An elderly woman remains in critical condition after she somehow drove her car into a lake at the Century Village retirement community.

At around 12:10 p.m. Friday, 80-year-old Josefa Luz Garcia's car could be seen fully submerged in the man-made lake behind one of the buildings, located at 1026 Ashley Drive. Broward Sheriff's Office traffic homicide detectives believe Garcia somehow backed her car into the lake.

Some Good Samaritans jumped into the water after witnessing the crash and tried to rescue her but could not get her out before the car slipped underwater. Chad Cawthorne was one of those who tried to rescue the woman. "By the time me and my guy went in to get her, we had nothing to break the windows with. People started throwing hammers down, but the car pitched and went like this," he said pointing his arm down, at an angle. "I could see her face."

"She was panicking," said Paul Aungpe, who also jumped in. "We tried to tell her to roll down her window."

BSO deputies arrive on scene next. They jumped in the water but also had trouble freeing her. After rescue crews arrived, Shaun Gibson of the Broward Sheriff's Fire Rescue, jumped in with no mask or diving equipment.

Gibson said he was able to wrestle her free with zero visibility in the murky water. He used only his sense of touch to find her. "I went back in," he said about his repeated attempts. "I was able to go back in and pull on that, what I thought was luggage at the time, and then realized that ... either an arm or a leg was exposed. That's when I knew exactly that we had a body."

The rescue was not as easy as pulling her out, however, as she somehow made it to the backseat of her car as the vehicle sank. "I was able to bring her up and over the front seat," said Gibson, "but then her leg was still stuck, and we were able to wrestle her free and get her to the window and brought her back up."

Though she was unresponsive when Gibson pulled her out, paramedics were able to revive her soon after. Rescue crews loaded her into an ambulance and brought her to North Broward Medical Center. Though, according to rescuers, she is breathing again, she remains in critical condition.

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