Alan Laidlaw helped attempt to save Michael Douty from drowning, Greer, South Carolina, August 26, 1995. At night, a 17-year-old girl fell from a flooded roadway into Hammett Creek, which was swollen by heavy rain. She was washed into one of two culverts that normally carried the creek under the road. Her friend, Douty, 18, entered the water for her but was himself pulled into a culvert, where, submerged, he maintained a grip of its edge. The girl was washed through the culvert and made her way to safety. A passerby, Laidlaw, 18, college student, entered the creek to help Douty’s friends attempt to pull Douty from the water, but the very strong current swept him into the same culvert. He was carried through the culvert and surfaced, then left the water safely. Douty’s body was recovered the next day; he had drowned.
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