Quick thinking, and Eagle Scout training saved a Pennsylvania teen who was sucked into a storm drain during a raging rain storm.
Ben Smith, 18, of Bethel Park was out trying to help people Wednesday as a storm dumped nearly four inches of rain, flooding streets and stranding vehicles.
‘We were trying to move a van,’ he told WPXI-TV, ‘I stepped away to get this wood panel and my foot just slipped and I went right under.’
Ben Smith, 18, was out trying to help people trapped in a storm, when he was sucked under water.
Smith was swept about 100 yards in this pipe, he hit his head several times and has cuts and bruises
Smith told KDKA-TV that it happened so fast, there was nothing he could do, ‘I flew in very quickly. I knew I wouldn’t be able to fight the water, it was moving fast and too strong.’
That was when his training kicked in. Ben Smith, who graduated from high school this month, was an Eagle Scout, ‘it teaches you to be prepared for any sort of circumstance that comes your way,’ he said, ‘I knew going against the water would not work at all, so I just tucked and hoped I would end up somewhere.’
He never lost consciousness, he kept his wits about him, ‘I wasn’t really thinking, I was just trying to take in what was going on. I was conscious the whole time so my brain was just going everywhere.’ |
At one point he hit an air pocket and was able to take a deep breath, before he was swept along again. ‘I felt my head hit a few times. My body was getting weak. I was just getting tired,’ he said, ‘part of me just prayed and hoped that I see the end,’
Ben Smith, second from left in his Eagle Scout uniform, poses with friends in a Facebook post
The end came after about a minute, he traveled about 100 yards, before popping up in his neighbors flooded yard, ‘I came out of the pipe and I felt my foot kind of hit the air, I felt the cold air, and as I came up, I saw the lights from the backyard of my neighbor’s house. Got up, started to walk towards the street, and a bunch of people were coming around, saying someone fell into the sewer, I was like, ‘That was me.”
Smith has some bumps and cuts, and he estimates that he whacked his head about six times, but he survived, and he think someone was looking out for him.
‘Makes you believe there’s a higher power.’
Neighbors stand where Smith ‘popped out’ of the storm drain, about 100 yards from where he was first swept in.
Smith shows some of the cuts and scrapes he got in the drainpipe. He is sore, but will be fine.