Cop leaps to rescue

Ex-lifeguard pulls gal from Hudson

An NYPD cop who previously worked as a lifeguard put his experience to use on Sunday when he rescued a woman who had jumped into the Hudson River after her boyfriend dumped her, cops said.

Officer Christopher Collins and his partner, Officer Tim Poon, were dispatched to Pier 62 in Chelsea shortly before 8 a.m. in response to reports of a couple engaged in a loud argument, cops said.

They were quarreling because the man wanted to end their relationship — and the woman responded by leaping off the pier, the NYPD said.

By the time the cops arrived, the current had already carried the 33-year-old woman 20 feet from the pier.

“I saw the girl right here floating, struggling, she had like a big backpack,” Collins said.

Collins — who said he worked as a lifeguard at a pool in North Bergen, NJ, about 20 years ago — quickly grabbed a rescue buoy and stripped off his gun belt, bullet-proof vest and shirt.

“I just jumped in, grabbed her and brought her to the buoy,” he said.

The hero officer said he had to swim about 100 feet to grab the woman and pull her to safety, but downplayed his lifesaving effort.

“Any other cop would do the same thing — well, the ones that can swim,” he said.

A 71-year-old man who witnessed the incident unfold said the woman appeared to have been suicidal.

“At first, I didn’t hear much, but then they started getting louder and the girl said, ‘Youu did this to me,’ and thee guy said, ‘Let’s be adults, we knew this relationship didn’t work,’ ” said the man, who gave his nameme as Richard.

“Then she started saying things like she was going to kill herself,” he said.

The woman was appar-apparently wearing the man’s backpack, which he wanted her to hand over.

At one point, she climbed onto a railing and was sitting on it as they argued, according to the witness.

“I’m not sure if she actually jumped or in the struggle she fell over, but she fell into the water a she had the backpack on at the time,” Richard said. “She obviously knew how to swim. She wasn’t swimming, but she was floating on her back and she kept yelling at him, using some poor words.”

The woman, who wasn’t identified, was taken to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation afterer be ing rescued, according to the NYPD.

PIERLESS HERO: When Officers Tim Poon (left) and Christopher Collins found a woman floating off Chelsea’s Pier 62 Sunday, Collins — once a lifeguard — jumped in to save her.