Homeowner, 76, dives into pool to rescue submerged SUV passengers

An elderly Florida homeowner switched into lifeguard mode at his backyard pool – rescuing a driver and a girl from an SUV that landed in the water.

William Marts, 76, said he heard a loud noise while he was in his home near Southgate Boulevard and Southwest 71st Avenue in North Lauderdale on Friday afternoon.

“We heard this tremendous crack. I thought the lightning had struck beside the house,” Marts told WSVN. “I went up to look, and it looked like a tidal wave right across my pool.”

He was shocked to see a half-submerged silver Ford Explorer sitting inside the shallow pool after it crashed through a fence.

“I went, ‘Holy jeez!’” Marts told the outlet.

The septuagenarian didn’t hesitate to dive in and rescue the occupants, saying he first checked on the driver.

“He was breathing, he was drooling, but at least he was breathing. Then I noticed there was a little girl in the back of the car,” Marts said.

Luckily, an off-duty detective with the Broward Sheriff’s Office happened to drive by at the same time.

“She was on her way home. She hopped in the water with me — she was tremendous,” he told WSVN about the woman, who helped him break the SUV’s windows and pull out the pair.

The Broward Sheriff’s Office, Margate Police, Margate Fire Rescue and North Lauderdale Fire Rescue soon responded to the scene, where they took the unidentified occupants to a nearby hospital, according to the outlet.

The victims were expected to recover from the ordeal.

Marts said he also went to the hospital to be checked out.

“I’m 76. It was a little much, and my heart’s going, ‘bla, bla, bla, bla, bla,’” he told the outlet.

The heroic homeowner said this was not the first time a vehicle has crashed onto his property.

“We have an accident every weekend here. They’ve gone through my fence seven times,” Marts said.

His daughter Kim Chamberlain called for officials to make the area safer.

“We’ve been asking Margate for years for a concrete fence with some rebar in there to stop,” she told WSVN.

Workers later hooked up the SUV and lifted it up to be towed from the scene.