Cellphone video captured the moment a good Samaritan saved a 2-year-old from the Assawoman Bay and handed her to boaters on the water after a five-car crash on the Route 90 bridge outside Ocean City.
The crash on Sunday left a pickup truck dangling over the guardrail, and a little girl and her car seat fell 25 feet into 5 feet of water below.
A good Samaritan immediately followed her into the 57 degree water and managed to rescue the child, lifting her onto a boat nearby.
Joe Oertel and his daughter, Alayna, were on that boat.
“He was jumping into the unknown as well, you know, he just saw a baby and went. That’s remarkable. That’s a hero there,” Joe Oertel said.
“The little girl did not say anything, but she was coughing and she was crying, so that was a good sign,” Alayna Oertel said.
Seven other people were injured. It is still not clear what lead to the crash.
Only the little girl remains in the hospital Tuesday. She is said to be stable.
“It puts something in your heart at that point, like, oh my gosh, this is real. You know, this is surreal real,” Joe Oertel said. “It makes you step back and makes you appreciate what you have.”
