Sergeant Alain Potvin of the Hawkesbury detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) was awarded a citation of bravery for rescuing a family from a vehicle submerged along a flooded dirt road in 2020.
On March 15, 2020, Sergeant Potvin responded to a call involving a vehicle stuck on a flooded dirt road near Riceville. The vehicle was submerged in approximately a metre (three feet) of water, and was about six metres from the Nation River. The current was flowing rapidly towards the river from a nearby field, dragging the vehicle along with it. The vehicle was quickly filling with water, sinking the front end.
A woman and her 5-year-old twin grand-daughters were in the vehicle at the time. Sergeant Potvin tied himself off with a rope to the cruiser’s push bars, then navigated the waist-deep water to rescue the children and grandmother, successfully bring them to safety.
Sergeant Potvin returned to the water to assist the tow operator in removing the vehicle from the flooded road.
