A passenger has been hailed a hero after he pulled off a car door to free a driver... as mud and water poured into the vehicle.

Arron Dale leapt to free Anna Wheeler after her car skidded in flood water and started to sink.

Then, as he recovered from the ordeal, the quick-thinking 25-year-old, from Woodnesborough, phoned her father Richard to come for help.

Anna Wheeler, 24, of Hazelwood Meadows, Sandwich, was driving home on Sunday when she got caught in the flood water.

She became trapped in a slope on the A256 Sandwich Road between Richborough and Cliffsend.

Arron freed Anna before she could drown in the flooding water, and called her dad Richard, who arrived just before ambulance and fire crews.

Anna was then moved from the submerged car into her father’s car.

Fire crews had to cut off the roof of the car in order to get her out safely. But she was left with a fractured spine as a result of the accident.

Mr Wheeler, 65, said: “The road was flooded and the car skidded across the road.

"If it wasn’t for her friend Arron she would be dead now, he managed to kick the door open and get my daughter out. She was submerged in water.

“When we got her in my car she just kept passing out, it was horrible. We covered her in blankets to keep her warm.

“They came and cut my car roof off, she was saying 'don’t cut my dad’s car' and I told her 'it’s just a bit of metal, it doesn’t matter, you’re the only thing that matters'.

“Arron suffered from whiplash and a cut to his face but he carried on helping my daughter, he is an absolute hero.”

Anna, who works as a carer in at Helping Hands Care Company, in Worthington Street, Dover, was taken to the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother hospital with a fractured spine and hypothermia.

"If it wasn’t for her friend Arron she would be dead now, he managed to kick the door open and get my daughter out. She was submerged in water" - Richard Wheeler

Mr Wheeler explained doctors have not confirmed whether she will be permanently paralysed or not as she is yet to see the consultant.

Arron, who attended Sandwich Technology School with Anna, said he felt lucky to be alive.

Anna is well known in Sandwich and Dover for her commitment to her job as a carer and looking after the elderly.

Read the full story in this week's East Kent Mercury.

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