62.0°,
Mostly Cloudy Man saved from frigid East Rockaway waters
Three Good Samaritans race to his aid
Three alert boaters averted what could have been a New Year’s Day tragedy when they saw a man slip into the frigid bay waters behind his senior housing complex and rescued him within minutes.
“I was covering my boat up when I saw someone fall into the water,” said East Rockaway resident Dan Marshall, who, along with friend and fellow resident James Crockett and Steve Christensen, of Oceanside, were on the Oceanside side of the canal, tending to their own boats. “Steve saw it too and yelled to us, “he’s in the water!’ We called 911 and hopped into our car.”
The man, Robert Summers, 73, of Front Street in East Rockaway, had been trying to anchor his boat when he slipped off the dock. Windy conditions caused him to lose his footing and he plummeted into the dangerously cold 45-degree water. Marshall said that they knew the man shouldn’t be in the water too long or he would get hypothermia.
The distance from their dock to his was about 50 yards, but they realized they might be in trouble if they dove into the cold bay waters themselves. Even so, the drive took them about five minutes as they drove down New Street, onto busy Atlantic Avenue, and then left onto Ocean Avenue and toward the Front Street apartment complex — where the three men found Summers still clinging to the dock.
“Steve grabbed him, and we got him up by his beltline,” said Marshall.
Shortly after, the East Rockaway Fire and Nassau County Police departments responded to the call. First Assistant Chief Steven Torborg was on the scene. The fire department’s EMTs treated Summers for hypothermia, but he refused further treatment.
