The quick action of Birmingham's police chief and others helped save a 22-year-old man who suffered a medical condition while driving on I-75 last weekend.
Mark Clemence was off duty Saturday morning. He was driving north on the freeway along with a retired detective from the department. They were both headed to a benefit golf tournament around 8 a.m. when they saw a vehicle cross four lanes of the freeway at a high rate of speed and leave the road.
It happened about 200 yards in front of them, Clemence said.
The two men stopped and discovered the SUV partially submerged in a small lake near Stanley Road in Mount Morris Township.
"As I stood there I could see bubbles starting to come up around the car and I knew right then and there that car was going to sink in that muck," Clemence told 7 Action News. "We needed to get that guy out."
With the help of an off duty Frankenmuth police officer and two civilians, the group was able to rescue the man.
Clemence managed to pull open the back passenger side door to get into the vehicle. After unbuckling his seat belt, Clemence was able to pull the man into the back seat and then out of the vehicle.
The driver, who was from Bay City, suffered some head trauma but is said to be doing okay, according to Clemence.
