Woman was trapped on roof of her floating car when a US Coast Guard officer passed by

A 29-year-old woman who drove off a coastal road into a murky canal had to be rescued off the roof of her car after it began floating away and filling with water, WTKR reports.

It happened Wednesday on Poyners Road in Currituck County and by coincidence, an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard was on his way home at just the right moment, the station reported.

U.S. Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Jeff Brundage saw the woman sitting on the roof of her car in the canal, and he is credited with traversing the murky waters to help, OBX Today reported. The woman couldn’t swim and had begun to panic as the car drifted farther into the canal, the news site reported.

Currituck County Emergency Medical Services told WITN the car had drifted at least 15 feet when Brundage reached the vehicle and rescued the woman.

Photos from the scene posted by the station reveal the car was nearly submerged in the 5-foot-deep canal when the woman crawled through her sun roof.

Investigators believe she lost control of the vehicle in the seconds before it ran into the canal, the station reported.

The woman was not identified by media outlets.

WAVY reports she was not hurt during the crash, and suffered no ill effects from being in the 50-degree waters.

Media outlets did not report how long she was stuck on the roof before Brundage offered help.

This story was originally published April 18, 2019 at 8:54 AM with the headline "Woman was trapped on roof of her floating car when a US Coast Guard officer passed by."