CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - Two assistant coaches with the Northeastern University rowing team came to the rescue of a driver whose car veered off a bridge and into the Charles River in Cambridge on Monday night.
Mark McDermott was out for a jog when he saw the vehicle enter the river near the Weeks Bridge in the area of DeWolfe Street and Memorial Drive around 7:30 p.m.
“It was frightening. You know, I’m thinking to myself, ‘Is the person driving it OK?'” he recalled. “A woman and her child had just walked by, so we’re talking a matter of five seconds between that car going 30, 40 miles per hour right by.”
Northeastern University rowing assistant coach Trevor Appier and volunteer assistant coach Beatrice Sims happened to be in a nearby crew boat and were able to pull the river to safety.
“Because there was a rowboat going by, like the coaching rowboat, it swings back around, throws him a life jacket, and pulls him out,” McDermott said.
The driver did not suffer serious injury, according to Cambridge police.
A dive team entered the river to make sure no one else needed to be rescued.
McDermott says he is grateful that everyone is OK.
“I’m just thankful everyone’s okay, especially the woman and the child. They were the ones that narrowly escaped,” he said.
The car has since been towed out of the water.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
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