A Texas tow truck driver helped pull an unresponsive man from icy drainage water on Tuesday, saving his life in what police called a two-minute window between rescue and death.
While conducting patrols for stranded vehicles on icy roads, Douglas Lane spotted an abandoned car in the eastbound service lane of U.S. 175 in Seagoville. When he got out of his tow truck to investigate, he heard a man shouting and then noticed the victim thrashing in a nearby culvert and “bobbing up and down in the water.”
Lane, 41, quickly called 911 and then went into the culvert to assist the man. He was unable to lift the victim alone but assisted responding officers with the extraction, according to Fox 4 KDFW. While waiting for the police to arrive, Lane kept the victim’s head above water by holding onto the hood of his sweatshirt.
The man showed no signs of life when pulled from the frigid water. Officers administered Narcan after spotting evidence of drug use, successfully reviving him.
“He had a faint pulse,” said Interim Police Chief Steve Davis, Fox 4 reported. “He was non-responsive, his eyes were rolled back in his head.”
Davis believes a two-minute delay would have proved fatal. The victim, identified by police as a 39-year-old Dallas man, remains hospitalized in intensive care with hypothermia.
Lane described watching the man’s head slip underwater moments before the rescue.
“His face went in the water, and my instinct was to say, ‘Oh no, well, you’re not going to do this,’ and I reached in there,” Lane said, per Fox 4.
Police identified the abandoned vehicle as belonging to the victim, but have not determined how the man entered the water. The department plans to honor Lane at an upcoming city council meeting.
Lane credits his grandmother for inspiring his actions.
“My grandma is the one that taught me to always help strangers,” he said. “Always help somebody in need, and that is what I went with. I just helped him.”
The driver told reporters on Wednesday that he is still processing the rescue. His quick thinking transformed a routine workday into a lifesaving intervention.
