NOKOMIS, Fla. (SNN) – A man jumped into action Saturday night to rescue another man from a sinking car.
The driver had plunged into the Intercoastal Waterway near Nokomis Beach.
“I just briefly said, ‘I should go help,’ and immediately went,” Dominic Yacca said.
Yacca was the first person on the scene.
The car went into the water across from Pop’s Sunset Grill where Yacca was bartending.
He said a band was playing that night when suddenly, they stopped.
“They announced, they were like, ‘Hey, someone call 911, there’s a vehicle in the intercoastal,’” Yacca said.
That is when Yacca hopped into his car and drove it the short distance to where the driver had gone into the water. But, because of the conditions, the current swept it away.
He chased it down as it passed under the drawbridge, where he was able to finally call out to the driver.
“I yelled out, ‘Hey can you hear me, can you get out of the window?’” Yaccas said. “He answered, he said, ‘No, I can’t get out.’”
As he went into the water to help, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Officer pulled up. Yacca got a police baton and managed to break the back window.
There was no time to spare if the driver stood a chance.
“By the time I got on the vehicle and broke the window, we were passed these mangroves right here, seconds,” Yacca said.
He said the nose of the car was submerged at that point. Since the driver had been on a road trip, Yacca had to fish through a lot of belongings to get to him.
Just as the car sank, they were able to pull the man out.
“We went under and it just worked out at the last second,” Yacca said.
Yacca’s coworker said she is not surprised by his heroism, but that it is likely his quick reaction made all of the difference.
“Dominic was standing right next to me behind the bar here, and he just said, ‘Should I go? I should go.’” Emily “George” McCormick said. “And he went like that, just instant.”
She said they had never seen anything like it, and in the tense moments leading up to the rescue, they were also worried about Yacca’s safety.
“There was a moment where we didn’t know if he was OK,” McCormick said. “And, it was emotional.”
In the end, Yacca said it was a ‘mission success’ for everyone involved.
“Somebody’s got a grandpa because of that,” McCormick said.
Yacca said the driver is from out-of-town, which could explain his unfamiliarity with the area, especially during Saturday’s low-visibility weather conditions.
He also said the driver’s family reached out to him on Facebook, to thank him for saving their loved one.
Car video courtesy – Brian Dombrowski
Photo courtesy – Pop’s Sunset Grill