Police credit officers and a concerned caller with saving a senior’s life after she wandered off when her car got stuck in a ditch late Tuesday night in Bradford.
According to South Simcoe Police, officers took a concerned call from a motorist just before midnight about a vehicle in a ditch in an “extremely secluded area” on the 4th Line.
When officers arrived, they found the abandoned car running with the 84-year-old woman’s purse and identification inside.
“Both officers immediately became concerned for the well-being of the elderly female, who was nowhere in sight,” the release states.
The officers started to walk the road searching for the woman when one of them heard a faint voice calling for help.
“The officer located the woman approximately 200 meters from the roadway, stuck in thick mud in the field.”
They say she wasn’t dressed for the below-freezing weather and couldn’t get out of the mud on her own.
The officers carried the disoriented woman to the road and wrapped her in a police coat.
They gave her a hat and blanket and put her in a cruiser to warm up until an ambulance arrived.
Paramedics took the senior to a local hospital as a precaution while her family was notified.
South Simcoe Police say there is no doubt, given the circumstances, that the concerned caller and the officers “saved the woman’s life.”
“Given the remote area, the weather, and the condition of the field where the woman had wandered, she almost certainly would not have survived the night had she not been located.”