Football players in South Padre for Spring Break save woman from sinking car
A group of college football players are being hailed as heroes after saving a woman from a sinking car during their Spring Break vacation at South Padre Island.
Luisa Maria Castro, 22, credits the quick-thinking of several Iowa State football players for risking their lives to save her from the car she drove into the Laguna Madre Bay, according to the Des Moines Register.
“They really are heroes, and I am forever grateful for what they did,” Castro told the paper.
South Padre Island Police received a 911 call about Castro’s sinking car on March 16. When police arrived, they witnessed three men pull Castro out of the water.
Iowa State linebacker Anthony Lazard says he and his teammates saw the car in the water and could hear Castro inside as the vehicle began to sink.
He and teammates Jack Spreen, Josh Jahlas and Spencer Benton entered the water and began attempting to break the half-submerged car's windshield.
"I was worried that we were going to watch this girl drown to death, because no matter how hard we were hitting it, it wasn't cracking or spidering for a while," Lazard told the paper.
Eventually, with the help of Castro kicking from the inside, they were able to make a hole in the windshield and widen it enough to pull her through.
“That car completely sank in less than a minute and if not for them jumping into the water and pulling the driver out, she would most certainly have drowned,” Officer Michael Schiltz said in a statement.
Castro was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated, according to a police incident report obtained by the paper. The incident report says Castro's blood alcohol content was nearly twice the state's legal limit of 0.08.