Regina ‘hero’ rescues woman, dog from slough-sunken SUV near Craven

When the 911 dispatcher told bystanders to wait for emergency crews to arrive, Matt Mario was worried there wasn’t enough time.

The Regina man was the first to make a split-second decision to trudge to a partially-sunken SUV on Sunday to rescue an elderly woman and her dog from a slough.

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Mario and his father were returning from a family reunion on Highway 20, north of Craven, when they came across a cluster of people who had pulled over to call for help. The crowd reported a vehicle veered off the road minutes before.

“In two minutes, we probably saw it (the SUV) drop another foot into the slough,” Mario said.

Lumsden RCMP said officers responded to the scene after it received a call at 12:45 p.m. that day.

Immediately, Mario and his dad wanted to spring into action, but were told to stay put by other bystanders, acting on the advice of the 911 dispatcher.

Mario’s father, Mike, said he told his son not to wait as they watched the vehicle be swallowed by the slough.

“I just said to Matt, ‘Go. Jump in,’” he said. “Get in there and help her out.”

The slough was shallow enough Matt was able to wade to the vehicle, but he said it was challenging to walk across the muddy floor.

Craven is a community about 40 kilometres northwest of Regina. (Village of Craven/ Facebook)

“It was pretty deep in there, and it was coming up to my chest,” he recalled. “It was not nice on the bottom.”

Matt checked to see if the doors could be pried open. When they wouldn’t budge, the women tried – with no success – to roll down the windows.

Matt then climbed on top of the SUV when the sun roof opened. The water had risen so high, it hit the woman’s chest as she was held her dog above the water. Matt could see her as he looked down.

“She (said) ‘I’m scared, I’m scared,’” he said. “Her voice was shaking like she was almost in shock, still had her seat belt on.”

Matt said he spoke to the woman, trying to keep her calm while they plotted her exit from the vehicle. Another bystander came to the side of the vehicle to carry the dog to safety.

“I pretty much had to pick her up out of the sunroof,” he said. “Just because of how tight it was in there.”

The woman told him she had a lot of anxiety because she couldn’t swim and was concerned about getting to the shoulder of the road.

“I calmed her down, said there’s two of us here, you could just like wrap around my neck if you want,” Mario said. “We ended up walking her in, and I held onto her hand as tight as I could.”

The Craven Fire Department, Lumsden RCMP and EMS arrived sometime after to assess the situation. Nobody had been hurt.

980 CJME reached out to the woman, who has agreed to do an interview at a later date.

Matt said he drove by later that evening to see the roof of the vehicle underwater. Mike, meanwhile, couldn’t be more proud of his son.

“The way he went at the rescue, jumping on the roof and guiding her to open up the sunroof,” he said. “He was a hero.”