A fast-thinking rookie police officer rescued an elderly woman from her flooded car Saturday afternoon, dragging her through the driver’s side window to safety while suction pulled her car deeper into a growing sinkhole.
Neither the driver nor Denver Police officer Scott Brackett, one of the first responders on scene, realized that the sinkhole on Exposition Ave. near Colorado Boulevard was far more than a puddle. Hurrying to pull the driver from her rapidly submerging car, Brackett plunged into water that closed over his head.
He grabbed a corner of protruding asphalt, and caught the car with his other hand. Another officer passed Brackett a knife and hung onto him while Brackett cut the driver’s seat belt and pulled her to the street.
“He doesn’t know how close he came to drowning, and the woman in the car probably doesn’t realize it either,” said District 3 Sgt. Bob Wyckoff. Brackett intended to change and finish his shift, but Wyckoff sent him home.
“He was a hero, and we were lucky,” Wyckoff said.
