Couple ‘rescued by hero’ af ter car plunged into river
AN ELDERLY woman was last night fighting for her life after the car she was travelling in with her husband left a road in Co. Donegal and plunged into a river.
They were only saved after passers-by managed to pull them from their car.
The couple – named locally as Philip and Loreta McKinlay – crashed into the Swilly Burn River near Porthall in Lifford, Co. Donegal, just before 6.30pm on Saturday evening.
Their car left the road before flipping over onto its roof as it entered the river and became submerged. A number of people arrived on the scene and waded into the river as water filled up the Nissan Qashkai car.
Mr McKinlay, the driver of the car, managed to get out and scramble onto the car’s roof.
He shouted at passers-by that his wife was trapped inside and he begged for help.
One young man managed to swim out to the car and pull Ms McKinlay out of the vehicle.
Another passer-by ran to a passing motorist and managed to get a water hose which he passed to the rescuer before the couple were taken ashore.
The man who got the hose, who asked not to be named, said the man who pulled the woman from the car was a ‘hero’.
‘I’m not sure who he is but he is the real hero,’ he said.
‘When I arrived I saw the man on the roof and he was shouting that his wife was inside.
‘Out of nowhere this guy just jumped in and managed to pull the woman from the car. I threw out the hose and they came back in. When he got the woman to the banking, he started to give her CPR. She seemed to be in the car a long time. The ambulance arrived then. I’m not sure who he is. I think he is from the North but he is the hero.’
Emergency services from both sides of the border, including the Rescue 118 helicopter, rushed to the scene.
The couple, who are in their 60s and from Rosgier in Lifford, were rushed to nearby Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry for treatment.
Ms McKinlay is understood to be in a critical condition.
Gardaí are still trying to determine the cause of the crash.
There were no skidmarks at the scene and no other vehicle was involved in the crash which happened close to the Sully Bridge.
The couple’s dog was in the car but managed to get out and fled the scene, before later being found. One theory being considered by gardaí is that the dog may have had some kind of a fit in the car that caused the driver to veer off the road suddenly.
Unusually for a house pet, the dog ran from the scene instead of waiting by the shore for its owners. It was only found after an appeal was put out to the local community.
The car was yesterday taken from the river for further examination. Garda Inspector Michael Harrison said investigators were keeping ‘an open mind’ at this stage.
‘Out of nowhere this guy jumped in’