A woman apparently fell into the rain-swollen Vermilion River in Pontiac, Ill., on Tuesday and was swept downstream for three-quarters of a mile by the current. She was rescued by police and firefighters near the Route 66 bridge in town, and capturing it all on videotape was Mayor Scott McCoy, reports WEEK-TV.
“I just so happened to be walking out. I had the camera in hand and I was about three blocks away and I happened to stop and catch this. It gets kinda personal when you run into a situation when it’s a person that’s in trouble … you’re kinda nervous and you want to jump in and do something yourself,” said McCoy.
But that’s what the rescue crews are for. The woman tirelessly fought a rapid current for more than half a mile while emergency personnel made several failed attempts to throw her a lifeline…that’s until she went under the Route 66 Bridge.
“One of the Pontiac city police officers had a life ring. He threw that as a last resort with direction from the guys telling him to go left and right because they couldn’t see her. He threw it and they hit the target. She grabbed it. They started to pull her ashore,” said Lt. Darrel Shoop of the Pontiac Fire Department.
A link to the video can be found on this page. The historic bridge can be clearly seen in the footage.
The woman’s name wasn’t available. She was taken to a local hospital.
UPDATE: The Pontiac Daily Leader is reporting today that the woman didn’t fall into the river, but jumped.
Woolford said this morning that the Police Department considered the incident a crisis intervention and “referred her to the appropriate mental health agencies.”