Police hero saves infant girls after family pickup plunges into canal
A fast-thinking highway police officer used resuscitation techniques to bring two young girls back to life in Phitsanulok early Wednesday after their family’s pickup truck struck a low concrete shoulder guard and plunged into a canal.
Pol Sen Sgt Major Prateep Mee-udon had to row a boat to the vehicle almost completely submerged in water alongside the Phitsanulok-bound road in Moo 8, Tambon Ban Pa, in Muang district.
Police said the father, Panya Pinkaew, 47, dozed off behind the wheel.
Only the front end of the pickup remained above the surface after it flipped over and sank tail first.
Panya, his wife Sureerat Thonglamphan, 33, their eldest daughter Pennapha Pinkaew, 13, and son Ekkarin Pinkaew, 6, managed to get free of the cab and climb onto the nose.
But Nujarin Pinkaew, 1, and Ammarin Pinkaew, five months, remained trapped inside until Panya was able to bring them to the surface.
Sgt Major Prateep was manning a checkpoint nearby when he heard a crash and calls for help.
He borrowed a boat and brought the family to the canal bank and, detecting no pulse on the two girls, performed CPR.
The family was taken to the district hospital, where doctors determined the girls were out of danger.