A junior police officer who joined the force less than a year ago has been praised for her “selfless actions” after she freed a 60-year-old woman from a car that had crashed into a Sydney lagoon.
NSW Police said in a media release on Sunday morning that the sole passenger of the VW Golf was recovering in hospital after being pulled from the car in the early hours of Sunday morning by Probationary Constable Kiesha McJannet.
Northern Beaches Police Area Command Duty Officer, Acting Inspector Adrian De Visser, said in a statement: “Probationary Constable McJannet has only been in the NSW Police Force since June 2023 – her selfless actions of entering the water and saving a woman from a precarious position is deserving of praise.”
Police said emergency services responded just after 12.30am on Sunday to reports that a car had veered off Pittwater Road at Dee Why and plunged into Dee Why Lagoon.
Officers discovered the driver inside the partially submerged vehicle, police said, and McJannet entered the water to free her from the car. The car “became fully submerged shortly after the woman was freed”, police said.
The driver was taken to Northern Beaches Hospital.
Police said salvage crews were expected to make efforts to retrieve the VW later on Sunday.