Woman calls man who rescued her from sinking SUV in Lake City 'a hero'

LAKE CITY, Fla. — A local woman whose SUV went into a retention pond is thanking the man who led the effort to rescue her.

It didn’t take very long for Kenny Chasteen to realize he needed to put down his phone and do something.

PHOTOS: Woman calls man who rescued her from sinking SUV in Lake City 'a hero'

“She was yelling, 'Help, help.' I kicked my shoes off and jumped in,” Chasteen said.

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Inside the SUV was Sonia Taylor, who had tried to slam on her brakes.

“The car just started sliding, and all of a sudden I was in the water,” Taylor said.

“The more I moved, the more I was sinking,” Taylor said.

“The front end started to go down,” Chasteen said.

Chasteen said he was even having a hard time staying above water.

“I was actually holding on to the side of her car to keep myself up, because it was so deep,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said, others were standing around taking pictures but eventually jumped in to help Chasteen.

“She’s like, 'I can’t open my door. I can’t open my door,'” he said. “It was scary.”

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Eventually, Chasteen and others were able to get Taylor out through her window.

“An act of kindness, what you did. I mean, truly, that’s a hero,” Taylor said.

But for Chasteen, he said he was just doing the right thing.

“I had my swimming trunks on, and I just happened to be at the right place at the right time,” Chasteen said.

Cox Media Group