Couple rescue trapped 'shaking' driver from 4.5ft floodwater as fire crews watch

19 February 2024 , 12:20

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The man is helped to safety by Jamie and his partner (Image: Stephen Huntley)

A couple waded into four-foot high flood water to rescue a "shaking and soaked" man trapped inside a car as the fire brigade looked on.

Jamie Price told how he and partner Danielle entered the flooded Ford in Ingatestone, Essex, to help a driving instructor stuck inside the vehicle. He said that the fire service were waiting for a specialist team and that the man could have been waiting another hour to be rescued.

The incident happened during a heavy spell of rain, on already saturated ground. on Sunday when Jamie went down to the Ford having seen the emergency services. There were two Essex fire and rescue crews, an ambulance and a police car - but the local resident claims he was surprised that crews were not doing anything to help.

Jamie and his partner were able to help the man who was shivering and "confused" from the cold water after managing to get a door open after the vehicle electrics failed. He estimated that the man could have been in the water for up to half an hour. "I live nearby and I had seen that the water at the ford was about four and half feet deep so I was pretty surprised that anyone had tried to go through it," he told The Mirror.

"Knowing the area when I saw the fire brigade go past I thought they will be going down there to the ford because someone could be in trouble. I followed them down and was just going to take a backseat and let the professionals do their work, but they didn’t do any work - they just told the man to stay in his car and it could take an hour to be rescued.

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The water was several feet deep (Stephen Huntley)

"So I just did my best to help out. The fire brigade were waiting for a specialist team to arrive who were trained in going into water as they weren't allowed to with their training. I understand for them they need to make risk assessments but for me there was no problem, I didn’t need to worry about that so I just went in. The specialist teams would have come from places like Colchester and with the traffic conditions and the flooding, with the area also quite remote, it could have taken an hour.

"I was liaising with the fire service who told the man in the car they couldn’t get the door open because the electrics had failed. I have some experience of this though with flooding in the area and I know there is double lock system if you pull on the door and that did work so we got the door open and the man out. I was surprised the fire brigade didn't seem to know this."

Jamie, a Youtuber, said that the man was "clearly in a state of shock" by the time he was helped out of the car. He continued: "The man seemed quite confused. He had been on the phone to an operator with the water up to his chest and he was clearly in shock, he had been told he would have to wait until the specialist team arrived.

"He was clearly shocked though and was worried about little things like getting his keys out when he just needed to get out of the water in that situation. He was shaking and soaked, the water was freezing cold, probably sub 10C and I don’t know exactly how long he was in there for but probably 20 to 30 minutes. He was taken to hospital afterwards.

The man was "shaking and confused" when he was rescued (Stephen Huntley)

"He was just saying thank you, thank you repeatedly but obviously it wasn’t about that. The water was four and half feet deep so it could easily kill someone. I had my wader gear with me to go into the water but I would have done so anyone with the man inside the car."

Jamie pointed out that the road was clearly marked as closed due to the flooding. He added: "I do also know that the road was closed with several signs saying that it was closed and that there was flooding so I was surprised that he had driven into it."

Essex Fire and Rescue Service reportedly said in a statement: “Crews who arrived at the incident at Buttsbury Wash found a car stuck in over 1.2m of flood water. Because of the depth, these crews requested additional support from our specialist water team while they remained at the scene to ensure the driver was safe. The driver got out of the car themselves.”

Tim Hanlon