Good Samaritans help woman, child trapped in car underwater

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. – Twenty Good Samaritans are being credited with rescuing a woman and a toddler trapped inside a car that landed upside down in a canal.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports (http://bit.ly/2hQL3AX ) that a car travelling southbound Friday morning on Interstate 95 near Fort Lauderdale went off the road and into the canal. Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles said a man escaped, but the woman and a 3-year-old child remained inside the car.

Jachles said 20 people, including an off-duty police sergeant, stopped and worked to rescue the pair. When firefighters arrived, the woman and child had been pulled from the car and placed unconscious on the embankment.

Jachles said they were taken to the hospital in critical condition.