When a 33-year-old woman drove into Lake Michigan on July 28, Long Beach Deputy Marshal Tobin Babcock jumped into action. On what began as a normal day of traffic patrol, Babcock’s quick thinking and actions helped to save a woman from drowning herself.
“I was running traffic on Chastleton Drive, which is one of the entrance roads to Long Beach from Highway 12. It was probably about 7:30-7:40 in the morning, and I got a call of what dispatch put out as a 1050 PI, which is a personal injury accident involving a vehicle,” Babcock said.
The accident occurred at the intersection of Chastleton Drive and Lake Shore Drive, only a few blocks from where Babcock was patrolling, allowing his response time to be quick.
“So, it was a few seconds response time. I think it was about 20 seconds from the time that the call went out to the time that I got there,” Babcock said.
When Babcock arrived at the scene he found that the Water Department was there and watched the car drive into Lake Michigan, with the driver still inside.
“They watched this car go through the intersection, down the grass embankment, over a probably four and a half to five foot retaining wall, through probably about ten yards of beach sand and into Lake Michigan,” Babcock said.
Long Beach Chief Marshal Mark Swistek also responded to the scene, working with Babcock to save the woman.
“So, when I got there my chief and I, Chief Swistek, arrived at approximately the same time and as soon as we got there, we started getting rid of our bulletproof vests and our gun belts and body cameras and all of the gear that would be ruined in the water, and would get really heavy if it got wet,”
Both officers sprang into action, entering Lake Michigan to save the female driver before the car drifted too far into the lake.
“We went into the water because everybody said that the driver was still in the vehicle. When we got to the car, cars maintain some buoyancy until they fill with water, it was still kind of buoyant and floating and it was starting to drift further into Lake Michigan,” Babcock said.
The driver, who had intentionally driven into the lake after abandoning her daughter in Porter County, refused to open the door for Babcock and Swistek, forcing the officers to find a different way to help.
“Chief Swistek went to find something to break the window out and eventually found a hammer, I actually had to hold onto the front and rear door handles, and I dug my feet in and kind of held the car from washing further out into the lake,” Babcock said.
Swistek was able to obtain a hammer to break the passenger door window in order to unlock the vehicle’s doors.
“We eventually got the doors to unlock just enough so that we could get it open because the female driver that was inside was actually holding the lock button down so that we couldn't get into the car,” Babcock said.
The officers then had to remove the combative female driver from the car as she was fighting the officers off.
“Once we got her out, we got her back to the shoreline and to the Long Beach Fire Department and the EMS personnel that were there to make sure that she was medically uninjured,” Babcock said.
The ambulance was then escorted to the hospital to further treat the driver. The quick thinking and actions of Babcock and Swistek had saved the woman.
“We immediately started thinking strategically about what's going to be the best way to get to that person to save them. After that, the incident dictates how we react. This isn't something you can train for on a day-to-day basis,” Babcock said.
Babcock, who has been a police officer for 24 years, is happy that he was able to respond to this incident and help the woman get the help she needs.
“Our focused goal and the thing that we are the happiest about is that the female driver is getting the help that she needs and that the daughter was unharmed.” Babcock said. “The focus of police work is to make sure everyone goes home safe at the end of the day, both the officers and the people involved.”