Teen was chilling with friend when he saw a car plunging into river—his quick action saved 3 girls and a police officer
Blindly following the GPS in your car can often lead you to dangerous places. That is exactly what happened to three teen girls who drove off-road and found themselves struggling to survive until a teen boy arrived to save them. According to the reports of local TV station WLOX, a heroic teen named Corion Evans rescued four people, including a police officer, from drowning in a river near Pascagoula, Mississippi. In 2022, the 16-year-old Evans spotted a car with three teenage girls inside it, accidentally crashing into the river off a boat launch.
“They drove straight under the water. Like, only a little bit of the car was still above the water,” Evans told the station. He swiftly jumped in the water along with a friend to rescue the girls. They managed to bring out the girls from the sinking car and helped them up on the roof of the vehicle. “I was just like, ‘I can’t let none of these folks die. They need to get out the water,’” Evans recalled. Evans mentioned that he had been swimming since he was 3 years old and the accident put his swimming skills to test.
“I was behind them trying to keep them above water and swim with them at the same time. 25 yards out, so it was a lot of swimming. My legs were so tired after. Anything could’ve been in that water. But I wasn’t thinking about it," the young boy mentioned to the news station. According to FOX 9, the teen girl driving the car was following her GPS and she had no idea that she was heading towards the river. The vehicle ended up in the water and floated 20 feet away where it started to sink. That was when police officer Gary Mercer arrived at the scene and joined in the rescue mission.
Mercer tried helping one of the girls when she began to panic and pulled him underwater. Evans also managed to pull Mercer to safety along with the victims of the crash. “The police department and I commend Mr. Evans’s bravery and selflessness he displayed by risking his own safety to help people in danger," local police chief, Brandon Ashley, commended Evans in a statement. "If Mr. Evans had not assisted, it could have possibly turned out tragically instead of all occupants rescued safely," he added. Both Mercer and Evans were later awarded with Certificates of Commendation by the town's mayor Billy Knight.
Evans also appeared for an interview with MSNBC and spoke on the incident. One of the teen girls who survived the crash, visited the spot once again with Evans as she recalled how she was trying her best to stay calm in the dreaded situation. "When I brought them to the shore, they couldn't breathe," Evans talked about his experience. The host lauded the teen for being raised right by his parents and thanked him for arriving at the location at the right time to save four people.