A wrong turn was about to cost him his life—until a stranger flipped the life-or-death situation on its head
When a person finds themselves in danger, they sometimes have only moments before things get worse. The importance of quick action is something that is timelessly echoed aloud. A Rideshare driver named Peter Giusti found himself in a precarious position after taking a wrong turn due to floods, Count On News 2 reported. While he was in his car, helpless in a creek on the Isle of Palms, South Carolina, hoping a miracle would come through, two strangers, Robert Heaton and his friend Brandon, came to the man’s rescue in a heroic way.
The incident occurred on a rainy night when the visibility was bad and it was hard for the driver to make his way. Nevertheless, he decided to make one last stop to pick up a group that was stranded in the rain. As he made his way in the unpredictable weather, he could barely see. “I said okay, I’ll take them because nobody’s going to go down and get them. It was so dark out. I was trying to get as close as I could to them at the entrance so they didn’t have to walk in the rain,” he recalled. All of a sudden, he noticed his car “went off a ledge.” It didn’t take long for the man to realize that he drove in the wrong direction and that things were going to get dangerous.
Footage shared by NBC News captured the man stuck with water surrounding him and the car quickly sinking. The two men spotted the car sinking and jumped into action. “Once I got the door open, I kind of crammed myself and jammed myself between the door and the body of the vehicle so it wouldn't close back on us,” Heaton recalled. He got hold of Giusti and saw that he still had his seatbelt on. “The first thing I was saying to him is, ‘Take your seatbelt off,’” he explained. With the duo now underwater, Heaton had little time to act.
“I was trying to hold his head up and actively reach for the actual seatbelt. By the grace of God, I remember praying at that moment,” he explained. To their luck, the man was able to rescue the driver and guide him back to land in time. Isle of Palms, South Carolina, Police Chief Kevin Cornett noted that there was a “drop-off” at the end of the water and it could have been fatal had the good Samaritan not intervened. When asked what prompted him to risk his own life to help a stranger, Heaton had an inspiring reply. “It’s very simple for me. It’s just what is the right thing to do and what I would want somebody else to do for me,” he remarked.
Giusti is exceptionally grateful for the men’s astuteness and humanity that saved his life. With tears in his eyes, he noted, “These people are heroes.” Officer Cornett asked drivers to be vigilant while driving in stormy weather. “This incident underscores the dangers of driving during severe weather conditions, including heavy rain and flooding, particularly at night. Water can quickly obscure where the roadway ends and make it difficult to gauge depths,” he noted.
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