CHP calls two UC Santa Barbara students “heroes” after rescue
Two UC Santa Barbara students are being called heroes after they helped save three men in Central California on Monday.
Emily Elmerick and Sydney Antles, both 19-years-old, saw a pickup truck submerge into water and flip upside down when they were driving on Highway 41.
California Highway Patrol mentions the young women and several other witnesses in the official collision report.
Elmerick and Antles were about 50 yards away when they stopped the car and got out to save the three men. Antles dove into the water to save the drowning men while Elmerick called 911.
The three men were in a 2005 Dodge pickup truck. 22-year-old Gerardo Gonzales was driving the vehicle while 20-year-old Carlos Mora and 45-year-old Jose Beneites were in the passenger seats. It’s unclear why Gonzales allowed his vehicle to travel to the right and run off the east shoulder of the highway. The truck ended in a water filled irrigation canal with 3 to 6 feet of water. The Dodge was fully submerged and was lying on its roof when authorities arrived.
All three men were transported to Adventist Medical Center in Hanford. The cause of the collision is still under investigation.
Antles is also a survivor of a car crash which happend back in 2015 in Santa Ynez Valley. She was driving her Jeep with two passengers when a truck crashed into her car. Antles spent 5 days in critical care and three months in a hospital bed at home.
