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Video: Deputy lifts overturned car by himself to free mother pinned by the vehicle

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Posted at 11:58 AM, May 19, 2021
and last updated 2021-05-20 09:38:52-04

GLOUCESTER COUNTY, Va. — A sheriff’s deputy single-handedly lifted an overturned car to free a mother who was pinned by the vehicle in Virginia.

The Gloucester County Sheriff’s Office posted a video of the stunning rescue online Tuesday.

According to the sheriff’s office, Deputy Jon Holt responded to the crash with entrapment on May 7. When the officer arrived, a witness approached him and screamed for help.

“She’s stuck under the car,” the child is heard saying in the video. “She can’t breathe, she can’t breathe, please help.”

When Holt looked inside the car, he found the driver lying underneath the vehicle with her head pinned by the car’s sunroof. He then “went into overdrive,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

Holt initially struggled to lift the vehicle.

“She’s trapped under the vehicle. I can’t get it off,” the officer is heard saying to dispatch. “Her head is pinned.”

The video then goes black as you can hear Holt strain to lift the vehicle up.

“Mom, try to get out,” the driver's child is heard saying.

“Can you slide any, ma’am? Are you, is your head clear?” the officer said.

The sheriff’s office says the woman was eventually able to escape the vehicle safely.

“Through sheer will and determination due to fearing the female may succumb to her circumstance in front of her panic-stricken child, Deputy J. Holt took quick action and was able to physically lift the vehicle up enough for the driver to maneuver her head out to safety,” wrote the sheriff’s office.

This wasn’t deputy’s first heroic act either. The sheriff’s office says he saved two people from a burning home in March of 2020. For that incident, Holt recently accepted “Top Cop Awards” from the Greater Hampton Roads Regional Crime Line.