They just, like, floored it into the lake right down the ramp, and they're just sitting in their car and it's starting to sink. - Brett Nikiforow
Fire departments from Au-burn and Troy townships launched a water rescue 10 minutes after receiving a 9-1-1 call that a black coup had driven off the boat ramp on Valley Road into LaDue Reservoir around 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
Chagrin Falls resident Brett Nikiforow, who was fishing with his cousin, Samuel Sell, on the shore of LaDue called 9-1-1 when they saw a 2014 Ford Focus drive east from the intersection at state Route 44 and continue down the ramp and into the water, ending up partly submerged about 100 feet offshore in the reservoir.
“I’m at Lake LaDue, in Ohio . . . someone just drove their car into the lake . . . at the boating ramp at the main entrance,” Nikiforow, 19, told the 9-1-1 dispatcher. “They’re in their vehicle. They have their wipers on still. They just, like, floored it into the lake right down the ramp, and they’re just sitting in their car and it’s starting to sink.”
Nikiforow said the entire front of the vehicle was going under.
He told the dispatcher he and Sell were trying to get the occupants’ attention, but they were not responding. He added he could not tell how many people were in car and that his 15-year-old cousin was swimming out there.
“It doesn’t even appear they’ve tried to open up any of the doors or anything,” Nikiforow said, reiterating, “the car was going pretty quick and they just went straight into the water, right off the end of the ramp.”
While Nikiforow thought there was more than one person in the Focus, Hiscox said the rescue team only found the driver, Richard Caldwell, who recently moved to the area from Texas.
Sell swam out to the car and tried to rescue Caldwell, but was unable to open the door.
“They’re beeping their horn,” Nikiforow said. “I can hear sirens coming now.”
The rescue team took a boat to the scene and was able to get Caldwell out of the vehicle, Hiscox said, adding Caldwell said he had a medical emergency that caused him to lose control of his car.
Caldwell was transported to University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center and later released.
Interviewed later by Cleveland’s Fox 8 News, Sell said he just did what needed to be done.
“I like to think of things as, if this happened to me, how would I want someone to react to help me?” he told Fox 8 News.
A sheriff’s deputy pinned a badge on Sell’s shirt in recognition of his brave act.
“It’s very rare we have somebody in the right place at the right time. Usually, people don’t want to get involved nowadays and we’re very proud that he got involved and helped,” Mike Cardaman, assistant chief of the Auburn Township Fire Department, told Fox 8 News. “We say in the fire service, risk a little, save a little; risk a lot, save a lot.”
