Paul Michael Voitko saved Grace Margaret Carrigg from drowning, Steubenville, Ohio, July 20, 1962. Grace Margaret, 2, was alone in the front seat of a four-door station wagon when it moved from its parking place on a sloping wharf and continued into the Ohio River. Voitko, 34, blast furnace water tender, who had seen Grace Margaret’s mother place her in the automobile and open part way the front door windows, ran 60 feet and entered the water fully clothed. He swam diagonally 30 feet and reached the drifting vehicle when it was 20 feet from the bank in water six feet deep. Its tilted front end was about half submerged. Unable to open the front door, Voitko opened the rear door and probed part of the front seat. Failing to find Grace Margaret, he entered the rear compartment as the automobile continued sinking slowly. In eight inches of air space Voitko held the door ajar with one foot as he felt about on the front seat cushion, which was floating in water more than three feet deep in the front compartment. The door closed on his foot as Voitko located Grace Margaret and pulled her to him. Pushing the door open with his foot and his free hand, Voitko submerged with Grace Margaret and surfaced alongside the automobile, which then was 35 feet from the bank in water eight feet deep. As Voitko swam to the bank with Grace Margaret, who had suffered no ill effects, the station wagon submerged completely.
46135 – 4621
46135-4621