A delivery round near Bramcote took a sudden turn when two drivers spotted an overturned car sinking in a lake and pulled a mother and her two children to safety.
Neil Gill and Stephen Earlston were partway through their route in Warwickshire on March 5 last year, when they noticed someone waving them down, Warwickshire Police said.
The white goods delivery drivers then saw the car upside down in the water and beginning to sink.
“It’s a bit of a blur,” Gill recalled. “Steve shouted for me to stop, and when we got out we saw the car upside down in the water. We could see people inside.”
Gill went into the lake while his friend and colleague Earlston stayed on the bank to help pull the occupants out.
Together, they rescued the mother and her two children before emergency services arrived.
Warwickshire Police said the pair’s quick actions were “instrumental” in preventing a tragedy.
After the rescue, the two men simply carried on with their route. They have now received a chief constable’s commendation for their actions.
It was not the first time Gill had stepped in during an emergency. On a previous round, he forced open the door of an elderly customer who had collapsed inside her home.
Speaking after the ceremony, he said: “We’re just glad everyone was okay. It’s not the sort of thing you expect on a normal shift, but you do what you can.”
Presenting the award, the chief constable described their actions as an “example of the very best of our community”.
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