Collier County deputies save man’s life after crash

Author: wink news
Published: Updated:

COLLIER COUNTY, Fla.- Three Collier County deputies tell WINK News they’re not heroes
even though they saved a man’s life.

The deputies didn’t think twice about diving into a murky canal to save 23-year-old Brian Alexander’s life.

Corporal Robert Lewis III, Corporal Kurt Miller and Deputy Scott Kaplan all went to North Collier Hospital Thursday night to visit Alexander who they pulled out of a North Naples Canal.

Troopers say around at 2:15 a.m. Thursday, Alexander’s SUV speed through a stop sign on Immokalee Road, then crashed through a guard rail before ending up in the murky water.

The deputies put their own safety at risk, as they do every day on their job, with the hopes that Alexander will survive this horrific crash.

“I pray that he makes a recovery and he pulls through,” said Lewis. “Last night, it just panned out just perfectly to have the help that he needed there it was just a miracle.”

Lewis, Miller, and Kaplan, who was just in his 13th day of training, dove into the canal just moments after the vehicle went under water.

Miller says they dove in about 10 times before finally being able to free Alexander who was then rushed to the hospital.

“There’s no thinking about ‘someone’s in the water,’ ‘the car’s upside down,’ the goal is to get them out. You do whatever you have to do to get them out and that’s what we did,” said Miller.

“I know we were starting to lose hope out there.. ‘what are we going to do?’ ‘Is he gone already?’ I said, ‘no, we need to get him out, let’s get him out.’ We just pulled together and kept at it, we pulled him out of there,” said Lewis.

These brave cops don’t want to be called heroes, they say it’s just part of the job.

“The public should know that we’re here for them. We’re going to risk our lives to save theirs, and you can be complete strangers, that’s just what we do,” said Lewis.

Lewis tells the WINK News Alexander wasn’t wearing a seat belt and was underwater for almost 8 minutes. Thursday night, Alexander was still in critical condition at NCH.

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