Update: Good samaritans rescue woman from Bargersville pond

6:15 p.m. update

An Indy man acted on instinct and saved a woman whose car was sinking into a drainage pond in Bargersville.

Brandon Brown was driving a dump truck near the intersection of Whiteland Road and County Road 144 at about 11:30 a.m. and instinctually stopped after he witnessed the accident. The woman unconsciously drove at least 30 feet around the roundabout before her car went through the grass and into a drainage pond near Center Grove Bantam Football League, Brown said.

Before he even know what he was doing Brown took action.

“I was headed west on Whiteland Road and I [saw] a car go into a pond. A couple of cars in front of me just went about their business,” Brown said. “Before my brain could register what was going on I put my truck in park and was calling 911 and I was headed over to help.”

Brown waded into the roughly three-foot deep water with only one concern: making sure the woman didn’t sink deeper into the pond.

“When you see a car go into a pond that’s not normal. I wasn’t going to just see that and not do anything,” Brown said. “My instinct was to not let the car sink and get whoever that person is out.”

Brown knocked on the window and tried to get the woman’s attention but she was in and out of consciousness because of a medical condition. He was joined at the scene by another man, William “Billy” Clements, who stopped to help. Together, they got her attention and eventually, she was able to roll the window down, Brown said.

The two men pulled her out of the window and brought her to shore. At the banks of the pond, several women had gathered to help, including a doctor who happened to be in the area, he said.

Brown, who works for Easy Transport, was in the area for work but wasn’t initially supposed to be at the intersection at that time. A last-minute adjustment to his duties that day lead him to that spot at just the right time, he said.

“It was a blessing that I was there,” Brown said.

Original story 2:48 p.m.

A good samaritan saved a woman whose car was sinking in a drainage pond in Bargersville.

A man driving a dump truck about 11:30 a.m. Monday stopped near the intersection of County Road 144 and Whiteland Road when he saw a car sinking in a drainage pond near the Center Grove Bantam Football League.

The good samaritan, Brandon Brown, of Indianapolis, pulled the woman from the car and left the scene before first responders arrived, said Mike Pruitt, assistant chief of the Bargersville Community Fire Department.

The woman suffered a medical emergency while she was traveling eastbound on Whiteland Road, said Jeremy Roll, spokesperson for the Bargersville Police Department.

The car ran off the road, through the grass and into the pond, where it floated for a short time before starting to sink at the opposite bank. That bought the woman some time and might have saved her life, Pruitt said.

The woman was OK at the scene, but was transported to an area hospital to be checked out due to the medical emergency, Roll said.

This is the first time someone has driven into the pond at this intersection, both public safety officials said.

Though there is no barrier to stop a vehicle from going into the pond, the circumstances would have to be very similar for another vehicle to do it, Roll said.

The pond is at the southeast corner of the roundabout, and does not have water deep enough to sink a car unless there has been a recent significant rainstorm, he said.