PLAINFIELD — An officer with the Plainfield Police Department is credited with saving a woman whose car went into a retention pond following a crash Tuesday morning.
Officer Robert Sumner responded to the retention pond around 7 a.m. near the intersection of Stafford and Perry roads after the woman lost control following the crash and drove through a fence barrier and into the pond.
The driver of a tractor-trailer swam into the water and attempted to break the window of the vehicle, but was unsuccessful.
Sumner told dispatchers he would take his equipment off and go into the pond without his radio, according to information from the Plainfield Police Department.
A bystander gave Sumner a knife to use as a window breaker and he swam to the middle of the retention pond where he broke the back window of the sinking vehicle.
According to Plainfield Police, Sumner used the knife to cut away the deployed air bag and found the woman who was barely above the water line and on the phone with 911.
Sumner pulled the woman from the vehicle and both escaped the water safely.
Medics transported the woman to Eskenazi Hospital with hypothermia, but police said she is expected to recover.
Sumner was checked and released after he received treatment for a laceration on his arm from breaking the window.
