Donald George Gough helped to save Gordon R. Kingston from drowning, Manning Park, British Columbia, May 23, 2007. Kingston, 83, remained in the driver’s seat of his car after it left the highway, went down an embankment and entered the Similkameen River, and, overturning, was swept downstream by the very swift current. Its windows broken out, the car righted itself, facing upstream, at a point about 35 feet from the bank in water about four feet deep. Kingston, who was a nonswimmer, climbed partially out of the car through the window of its driver’s door and sat on the window ledge with his legs inside the vehicle. Motorists who stopped at the scene included Gough, 60, environmental monitor contractor. As no rescue aids were then available, Gough left the scene and obtained lengths of fire hose. Returning, he tied one end of the hose around his waist and, still wearing his boots, entered the river as men on the bank held the other end. Gough walked upstream and then started to approach the car, but the current overtook him. He swam to the car and mounted it and then lowered himself into the water next to the driver’s door. Gough removed the hose from around his waist, tied it around Kingston, and then pulled Kingston from the car and released him. The men on the bank pulled Kingston to the edge of the river. Untethered, Gough swam from the car, the current taking him farther downstream as he made his way to the bank. Kingston was moved up the embankment to the highway and then taken to the hospital, where he was admitted for treatment of hypothermia and lacerations. He recovered. Gough was cold and tired but fully recovered within a few hours.
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