Fatality and rescue in cars in canals

TWO cars driven into two different canals have resulted in a fatality in one and a very lucky rescue in another.

One car that crashed through Prison Bridge at Devizes on the Kennet & Avon Canal (pictured) resulted in a fatality whilst the occupants of another that went into the Bridgewater Canal at Timperley were rescued, Alan Tilbury reveals.

Tried in vain

A paramedic tried in vain to rescue Stuart Richard Hughes after his car sank in the Kennet & Avon Canal around midnight one night last week.  Of the three occupants, two managed to escape onto the roof shouting that Stuart was trapped inside.

Though the two went into the water to attempt a rescue, later joined by a paramedic and two police officers, who swam out into the waterway, they were unable to free the trapped driver.

It was firefighters who eventually freed the driver's body, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.  The two passengers were treated for their injuries at the Royal United Hospital in Bath.

Bridgewater rescue

A family was rescued from the car that plunged into the Bridgewater Canal at Timperley on Tuesday, with two of the family getting onto the roof of the partly submerged car, and pulling up the two still inside so that their heads were above water.

Fire crews arrived and jumped into the waterway, smashing windows to get the two still inside the car to safety.

One of the occupants was unconscious and had stopped breathing, and the fire crews worked to resuscitate her. She began to breathe again and was taken to Wythenshawe Hospital, where she is recovering.