He's a lifesaver
By Meghan Carey
THE EAGLE-TRIBUNE (NORTH ANDOVER, Mass.)
PLAISTOW, N.H.— John Desimone didn't just hear the splash -
he saw the car go into the water.
The 63-year-old Plaistow resident was working for his daughter's boat towing company in Narragansett
Bay, R.I., on Sunday morning when he saw Joan McKenna's Toyota Camry drive over a sea wall, become airborne and land teetering on
a wooden pylon.
McKenna, 70, was parking her car, but accidentally shifted into neutral and continued over a grassy area toward the
water. Desimone immediately ran over to the spot where the car's front end was submerged and began to assess the situation.
"When I
got over there, I saw a baby seat in the car, and that was my motivation to jump into the water," Desimone said. Luckily, Desimone
said it was "dead low tide," so he was able to stand half in the water and pull McKenna out of her car as a second man held open the
door. After receiving confirmation there wasn't a baby in the car, he carried her to shore. She was shaken, but not hurt.
A former
emergency medical technician and recent graduate of the advanced Red Cross training program, Desimone said he went right into action
without thinking. It wasn't until after he had McKenna on land and was out of the water himself that he realized how dangerous the
situation really was.
"If it (the car) rolled on me, I would have been stuck underneath," he said. "If the gas line was cut, it could
have exploded and the people watching could have been part of it."
Desimone hasn't seen or talked to McKenna since the rescue, but
the adrenaline of the moment is still pumping in him.
He said Sunday's accident could have been much worse. A harbor festival started
shortly after everything was cleaned up, and the area was packed with children.
"If it was an hour later, there would have been a lot
of dead people," Desimone said.
The tide also played a big factor in keeping the accident minor, he said. If the tide was high, the
woman's car would have been submerged in water that's 15 to 20 feet deep, he said.
Desimone's daughter, Gina Lynch, owns the boat tow
company, BaywatchRI, that he was working for at the time of the accident. This is BaywatchRI's first season in the water, and Desimone
said he has been helping out every weekend.
Meghan Carey writes for The Eagle-Tribune of North Andover, Mass.
