Joshua J. Gardner

Joshua J. Gardner saved a man from drowning, Calgary, Alberta, July 5, 2014. A man remained in the driver’s seat of a sport utility vehicle after it left the roadway and entered a pond on a golf course. Floating upright at a point about 90 feet from the closer bank, the vehicle started to submerge nose first. Gardner, 36, golf professional, was on the course not far from the pond and witnessed the accident. Seeing that the driver of the vehicle was dazed and making no effort to leave it, Gardner entered the pond fully clothed and swam to the vehicle’s driver’s side. Water by then had reached the bottom of the window of the driver’s door. Gardner reached through the partially opened window, opened it completely, and then released the man’s safety belt. Confused, the man moved into the front passenger seat. Gardner entered the vehicle farther, to his waist, and grasped the man under his arms. Pulling the man with him, Gardner backed through the window. He then assumed a hold on the man and swam to the bank with him. Unable to learn from the man if others remained in the vehicle, Gardner swam back to it, but it had submerged and Gardner could not see inside. He returned to the bank. The man required hospital treatment.

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