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Good Sams Rescue Elderly Man From Sinking Car In Southwest Ranches Canal

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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – As fire rescue arrived, an elderly driver caught his breath on the side of Stirling Road.  Moments before, he was pulled from his sinking car by a stranger.

"I did not wake up thinking I was going to do something like that," said Julio Fernandez, the man who rescued the elderly driver.

Fernandez and James Arguello were in Southwest Ranches for a business meeting when they saw the car slide into the watery ditch on Stirling Road near 137th Avenue. They ran to help knowing there was no time to waste.

"I'm talking on the phone to 911 saying, 'We need help right away! This car is sinking!'" he said. "We were seeing that the little car and the gentleman inside the car, that had the window open, were sinking."

When Fernandez got to the ditch he jumped right in.

"You don't think about anything else, but just go and get it.  There's crocodiles and things that can harm you and, like right now, I would not jump in there," said Fernandez.

They had no idea how deep the canal was. Fernandez just knew the car was sinking with the driver in it and so was he.

"The water, it starts hitting here as I approach the car. Now, I'm getting in more, so the water practically covers me up to here (shows neck)," Fernandez demonstrated to CBS4's Ted Scouten.

Through the open window, Fernandez grabbed the driver and pulled him out.

"I grab him. I just start pulling him. I'm also sinking in, so (I) pull him out drop him on the water, it's easier for me to carry," Fernandez explained. "As soon as I push him close to the edge, James starts bringing him up."

The driver was checked out by paramedics.

Meanwhile, Fernandez reflects on what happened – figuring he was motivated by either fear or courage or maybe a little of them both.

"Fear that he's going to die, so guess what we have to get him out. Your courage to jump and to the fact that there are alligators in there," he said.

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