UNSAFE CANALS IN CORAL SPRINGS: CELL PHONE SAVES LADY AS CAR SINKS INTO CANAL

CELL PHONE SAVES LADY AS CAR SINKS INTO CANAL
GUARD RAIL FAILS AGAIN

If  a woman did not have her cell phone with her when her car plunged into a canal  on 29th street in Coral Springs at 4:41 am, she would have drowned.

Very early every morning, Eva Rubina, a nice 76 year old lady drives to the Coral Springs Teen center located at 10013 NW 29th street, on the north Side of Mullins park and feeds the ducks and  stray cats.  She has been doing this for years.  However on this Thursday , June 3,2010  after getting back into the car putting into reverse , somehow it went out of control, flinging  backwards to the other side of the street , where the old Broward County Library used to be, climbed the sidewalk, running over a metal bench , and launching through palm hedges plunging  into the canal.

No one was around to see this.

The palm  hedges folded back as if nothing happened.

The Guard rail was not long enough to protect her from plunging into the canal

Her car started to sink, and the water level in the car started to rise. She was trapped. Her doors did not open. She had one chance. Her Cell Phone.  She dialed 911 and a Coral springs dispatcher answered and directed the officers to the location.

While on the cell phone talking to the dispatcher, she did not panic.  The car started to sink, and when the water was filling up. Eva’s  2001 white Hyundai  had fully submerged in a canal with her trapped inside. The water as the water level rising  above her head, the cell phone call drops, and she started to drown.

At the same moment , Coral Springs Officers arrived at the area, located Eva’s car and  Several officers immediately formed a chain while other officers entered the canal to rescue Rubino.  They used a center punch to break a window of the car  saved Eva Rubino’s life.

She is resting comfortably at the hospital.  No doubt she will always have her cell phone by her side!

This was a good story with a happy ending that I was happy to right.  However the bigger problem here is yet another car is allowed to dive into a canal due to poorly engineered guardrails.  The city has many dangerous canals close to streets.  Eva was lucky this time. Three teenagers died a few months ago ( click here) were not so lucky.

Had Eva not had her cell phone,  there would have been no way the police would have been able to save her, and she would have been one of those people gone missing and later found at the bottom of a canal.

How many other deaths are going to occur in this city until we secure our canals and demand from the government that the guardrails around canals become up to standards?