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A white SUV was driven into the sea near the Port of Belize on Wednesday night when driver, 61-year old Ulrick Young, lost control behind the wheel. Fortunately, a trained lifeguard was nearby and managed to resuscitate Young. We caught up with him today and he told us that he and other onlookers watched Young trap himself inside the car while attempting to escape.

This was the scene on Wednesday night when a Honda SUV plunged into the sea near the Port of Belize. Inside was 61-year-old Ulrick Young who had lost control of his vehicle after experiencing a stroke.

Shane Pascasio- Local Hero
"The way I get from the experience of how I saw the man, he caught a stroke and he was turning left to go the end of the pier and that’s where he locked into the stroke and turned straight into the sea so it was like 10 to fifteen minutes that we were trying to analyze what to do. And then we called the police so we were like  raised the windows up

Young was panicking at the threat of almost certain death. But he couldn’t have known that an onlooker was strategizing a rescue.

Shane Pascasio
"By 18 to 19 minutes it was like the police were coming already and we needed to do something. So we told the police the man is in there and the man miraculously just floated out of the car by himself I don’t know how but he floated out and in good reach off of the seashore for the police to reach him but they didn’t have anything so they got a piece of wood and he tried to reach him but he didn’t have anything so he got a piece of wood and he tried to bring him in and he said already that the man is dead I told him no in my experience I see a little life in him at least 5% cause to me 95% He was gone already you know and this man I didn’t know if he had family and all of this I needed to help this man with the skills that I have because I am a trained lifeguard for about 9 to 10 years from the YWCA you know so I got my training from them because I was a victim too of drowning. He was discoloured he was paled he was purple-blue all colour to me and he was full of water because when I did CPR on him his belly was like about this way to the front and by the time I was done It was flat back to normal because I saw the need to perform CPR on him."

Pascasio says that his quick actions were guided by a familial instinct.

Shane Pascasio
"He might have had family waiting for him to come home and I have my mom you know and if I ever do hear anything I don’t know what I would do because that’s all I have, maybe he has grandkids, he had I don’t know wife, uncle, sisters. A couple of the family members they came out to me I think his daughter and one of his sisters and a brother I think they told me thanks."

Pascasio believes that Police officers should undergo basic rescue and CPR training to be better prepared to address all manner of accidents.