Life Saving Incident

On September 15, 1999 at 0051 hours Officer Scott Shively and Highway Patrol Officer George C. Griffith responded to a report of a vehicle into an embankment , The officers arrived at 1400 East Mission Bay Drive and discovered a vehicle in the flood control channel, just north of the entrance to Fiesta Island. The vehicle had left the roadway and ended up at the channel on the embankment. The vehicle was sliding backward into the muck and sewage. The officers noted a female in the driver's seat of the vehicle and it was starting to fill with water and raw sewage. When they arrived at the driver's door the female had still not responded to their commands. The officers were now in the water and sewage past their waists and the car was still sinking. The water was entering the vehicle and was up to the woman's chin. The woman was incoherent and unresponsive. She was incapable of following the officers commands and was unaware of their presence. The officers then forced the door open, pulled the woman out of the vehicle and carried her to safety. The vehicle continued to fill with water and slowly sank into the channel. The woman had lost consciousness and was incapable of responding to the officers. These officers risked their own safety to save the life of a fellow human being.