A woman is recovering in hospital this morning after the car she was driving left the roadway and crashed into a creek leading into Dee Why Lagoon.
Just after 12.30am (Sunday 24 March 2024), emergency services responded to reports of a car leaving the roadway on Pittwater Road at Dee Why, before crashing through bushes and coming to rest into an waterway connected with Dee Why Lagoon.
First person on the scene was local Jack Joyce, 19, who noticed the woman flashing her high beams – he called 000 immediately.
“I was riding home on my bike and when I crossed that like little bridge area where the lagoon is, I had just seen like the two headlights under the water… then I saw her in the water, and then she started flashing her high beams at me, slowly sinking,” Jack retold.
“I went down the bank where the lagoon is, and I tried, I was yelling at her to open a window, just to crack it so I could just hear or whatever. I think she couldn’t hear me or anything so I just called the police and stayed on the line with them until they came.”
Officers from Northern Beaches Police Area Command arrived to find the driver and only occupant of the VW Golf sedan, a 60-year-old woman, was still inside the partially submerged vehicle.
A female police officer, Probationary Constable Kiesha McKannet, entered the water and managed to free the woman from the car, which was quickly taking on water and became fully submerged shortly after the woman was freed.
“Probationary Constable McJannet has only been in the New South Wales Police Force since June 2023 – her selfless actions of entering the water and saving a woman from a precarious position is deserving of praise
The woman was examined by NSW Ambulance Paramedics before being taken to Northern Beaches Hospital for observation.
Northern Beaches Police Area Command Duty Officer, Acting Inspector Adrian De Visser, praised the efforts of Probationary Constable Kiesha McJannet, whose actions prevented the woman from drowning.
“Probationary Constable McJannet has only been in the New South Wales Police Force since June 2023 – her selfless actions of entering the water and saving a woman from a precarious position is deserving of praise”
The vehicle remains submerged in water and salvage crews will attempt to retrieve the vehicle from the lagoon later today.
See the video here
