Rural Carrier Eric Pierce was recently delivering mail on a rainy day in Lavonia, GA, when he saw a worrisome sight: a broken guardrail on a bridge over a lake.
Pierce stopped to investigate and spotted a nearly submerged car. He immediately called 911, but as he spoke to the dispatcher, he realized there was no time to spare.
He noticed three fingers sticking out of the vehicle’s hatch.
“At that point, everything kicked in,” Pierce said. “All I could think of was getting into that water.”
The Postal Service employee yelled for two nearby fishermen, and together they freed a woman, Armendy Davis, who had skidded off the bridge and was unable to escape before her car filled with freezing water.
Pierce remained on the scene until paramedics arrived to treat Davis for shock, cuts and bruises.
Later, at the local Post Office, when Davis met Pierce for the first time since the accident, she burst into tears as she hugged and thanked him.
“I don’t get emotional until I think of him,” Davis told a local newspaper. “If he hadn’t taken the time to get out of his car, I wouldn’t be here. I never can express how grateful I am.”