GRAFTON, MASS. (WHDH) - A teenager who crashed his car into a Grafton river described the fear of seeing his girlfriend trapped in the sinking vehicle, and praised the good Samaritan who freed her Friday night.
“You’re just thinking to yourself, ‘Oh my God you’re that close to death,'” said Zahary Markt. “I’m like, ‘Oh God please don’t let her die.'”
Markt, who is from Grafton, and his girlfriend were driving on Friday night when he says they hit black ice, sending the car sliding down Wheeler Road toward the intersection with Worcester Street. Markt added that he steered into a snowbank to avoid the intersection but the car plowed through the snow and a stop sign, landing in the river.
Markt dove out of the car as it crashed but quickly saw he was alone.
“I was like ‘Oh no, she’s not out,’ so I jumped back into the water,” Markt said. “I’m screaming for people to help because I don’t have anything I can break [the glass] with. I’m trying to use my hands and feet but it’s just not working. I just needed to get her out because hearing someone and seeing someone in the car is just scary.”
As the car sank, a man driving by stopped and rushed to help.
“He tried smashing the driver’s side rear window and it doesn’t break, so he goes to the back window and is able to get her out,” Markt said.
Two days after the crash, Markt said he’s a little sore but he and his girlfriend will be OK.
“I don’t have a car, but that doesn’t mean anything to me anymore because she’s alive, that’s all that matters to me,” Markt said, adding praise for the man who stopped to help. “I really think he is a hero, I know he doesn’t want to be seen as it but you can never not see someone who does that as a hero… It’s just honorable.”
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