Elderly Long Island couple rescued from vehicle that crashed into canal
The couple was in a car that crashed through a fence and into a canal in Lindenhurst, L.I., Monday.
Dramatic surveillance video shows a car careening into a Long Island canal and people jumping into the water to rescue the two elderly occupants.
The 2004 Mercury hit the water in Lindenhurst, N.Y., Monday afternoon following an accident involving two other vehicles. As the accident scene was being cleared, one of those vehicles clipped the Mercury, sending it plunging into the water.
Screen grab from surveillance footage showing vehicle crashing into a canal on Long Island Monday. (Suffolk County Police Department)
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The video shows people jumping into the canal as the car starts sinking. They were identified as five passersby — described by authorities as good Samaritans — and two members of the Suffolk County Police Department, one who was off-duty.
“I had to do something. I gave my phone and my wallet to my partners ... I jumped in the water," Mustafa Tosum told News 12 Long Island. "Then he's crying, 'Please save my love, my wife, we're married almost 57 years.' I said, 'Oh my God, I hope she's alright.'"
Tosum owns an auto body shop and was working when he heard the crash.
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He and the others pulled the driver, Joseph Abitabile, 78, from the vehicle, Suffolk police said.
First responders rescued his wife, Delores Abitabile, 76, after the Mercury sank to the bottom. They broke a window to extricate her, according to police who said she was unconscious.
They said she was revived by an off-duty officer with the Lake Success, L.I., Police Department, Robert Russo, who performed CPR.
The Abitabiles went to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
They said four others also went to hospital: a good Samaritan, the two Suffolk officers and a man involved in the initial accident.
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