Two men from Regina are being heralded as heroes after rescuing a driver who was trapped in her sinking vehicle.
On Sunday, July 5, Marjorie Flavel was driving down Highway 20 near Craven, Sask., when she dozed off. The vehicle crossed over the road and plunged into a slough.
Flavel woke up as her vehicle entered the ditch, where she took control. She attempted to steer the vehicle to the slough’s edge, but it lost power before she could do anything.
“I tried to open the window and get the door open. They’re all electric and the motor isn’t working,” she recalled. “I tried to fight into my glove compartment because I have a tool to break the window. Everything was floating.”
Matt Mario and his father were one of the many passersby who stopped to see what was happening.
He could see Flavel in the car but was told by others not to enter the water.
“We watched the car and it dropped probably a foot deeper in two minutes,” Mario explained.
‘I tried to keep her calm’
It was at that point, Mario’s father told him it was time to get in the water and try to help. Another passerby, Alexandros Agarai, also jumped into the water to assist.
“I hopped up on the roof. Thankfully, the sunroof opened. I tried to keep her calm,” Mario said.
Flavel’s dog was also in the vehicle during the crash and was first to make it out through the sunroof. Flavel was then pulled out and helped back to shore.
“(The water) was up to my chest,” Mario recalled. “It was like quicksand, the floor of it. We were sinking deeper as we stood there.”
‘Very lucky and more’
Flavel said she was in a daze getting out of the water. She was checked multiple times by emergency crews before leaving the scene. She said Mario and Agaria are both heroes.
“I consider myself very lucky and more, to have two angels that did save me,” she noted.
Mario said he was at the right place at the right time and feels many other people would have done the same thing.
He does feel the situation could have been much worse, due to the slope of the road, and the possibility of the car tipping when it entered the slough.
Driving by the scene after the incident, Mario told CTV News that only the car’s roof was visible above the water.
Flavel is grateful to the emergency response teams who got the scene so quickly.
She plans to take Mario and Agaria to dinner soon as a thank you.
