Man working on boat carries out harbour car rescue

A man who saved the elderly driver of a car which became submerged in a harbour has described how he went "straight back to work" following the rescue.

Peter Rimmer from Southport was working on his friend's boat on Friday when a car entered the water at Whitby Marina.

"I saw this splash come down as I stuck my head out from under the boat and I heard someone say, 'someone's in the water,'" said the 58-year-old.

"After [the car] bobbed up, it looked like it was alright but [the driver] was trying to put his window through with his walking stick and there were half a dozen fellas gawping on the side of the pontoon."

Fire crews from Whitby and Lythe as well as coastguard rescue teams and police attended the scene at about 11:50 BST.

Whitby RNLI said it launched its inshore lifeboat after a vehicle entered the water in Whitby harbour, with the crew "providing medical assistance to the casualty who was transferred to a waiting ambulance".

"It started turning slowly like a slow motion merry-go-round and then the front end started going down," Peter said.

"I jumped on this other boat, jumped off the boat with a hammer in my hand, put the window through and bounced off the back of the car and got a mouthful of water.

"As I put my arm down into the back of [the car], the water just started pouring into the back.

As I was stood on the back bumper of the car, pulling him up, the car just fell away."

First aid was given to the man before the arrival of ambulance crews, with the driver taken to hospital for treatment, according to North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.

The car was later salvaged from the marina by a digger.

Peter continued to work on his friend's boat afterwards before heading back to Merseyside.

"I had to get dried off and because I had spare clothes in my camper, I stripped off and finished the job and got off home," he said.

As part of the National Water Safety Forum's Phone Float Throw campaign, members of the public are advised to phone 999 to get help, tell anyone in the water to stay calm and float and then throw them rescue equipment to help them before emergency services arrive.

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