ROANE COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — A Tennessee man is being called a hero after jumping into frigid waters to save a woman’s life.
Roane County was under a winter weather advisory on Sunday when Brody Roberts was driving to meet a friend at the gym. It had just started to snow.
At around 3:30 p.m., just before Roberts pulled up to the scene, a car had run off the road, down a hillside and into a lake, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol. A woman was stuck inside.
“I was about five minutes away at that point and I saw a truck in the middle of the road, and I was like, ‘What’s going on up here?’ Then I looked over into the lake, and there was a car out there,” Roberts said.
Roberts immediately pulled over. One person was already on the phone with 911. He asked them if anyone was in the car, and when the person on the phone said yes, Roberts quickly responded.
“I stripped off my outer layer of clothing and I went for a swim,” he said. “By the time I got to the car, it had just gone completely underwater.”
Roberts added, “I opened the door, and as soon as I opened the door, her hands came out.”
Roberts said the woman in the car still had her seatbelt on. He struggled to unlatch it, then grabbed her and swam to safety.
“Whenever she came up and got her breath of air, I was like, ‘OK, we’re good. Let’s get back to the bank,'” he said.
There, a group of people standing by gave both Roberts and the woman their coats. “It was definitely the coldest I’ve ever been,” he said.
When asked if he would do it again, Roberts said, “Oh yeah, 100%.”
“I was only doing what I would hope somebody would do for me or my family. You know I wasn’t trying to be a hero or anything like that,” he said. “I just knew that somebody needed help.”
The woman he rescued was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The accident is under investigation.
