Charles R. Womack helped to save Esther J. Warren from drowning, Fort Worth, Texas, February 6, 1992. Esther, four months old, was secured in a child’s car seat on the front seat of her family’s station wagon when the car rolled from a parking lot down an embankment and into the Trinity River. It began to sink in water about 15 feet deep at a point about 30 feet from the bank. Womack, 35, truck driver, witnessed the accident, then entered the water and swam to the car. He and a teen-age boy who also had entered the river attempted to open the passenger-side doors but could not; they then broke out the window of the rear passenger door. After Esther’s older sister and brother were removed from the car and taken to the bank by other rescuers, Womack crawled head first through the window. With only his legs extending from the car, he maneuvered to the back of the front seat, and, with some difficulty, freed Esther from her car seat. He then maneuvered backward toward the window, through which he handed Esther to another man who had arrived. The other man took Esther to the bank as Womack exited the vehicle. Moments after he swam back to the bank, the car submerged completely. Esther and Womack both recovered from minor injury.
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