INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Quick thinking by some bystanders after a crash north of Vero Beach Tuesday morning may have saved a driver's life, fire officials said.

The crash was reported about 7:30 a.m. at 69th Street and 66th Avenue.

A blue Chevrolet sedan was headed east on 69th Street when it failed to stop at the intersection, striking a red sedan southbound on 66th Avenue, according to Sgt. Fred Jones of the Florida Highway Patrol.

The force of the impact sent the red vehicle tumbling into the flooded canal. The driver was trapped underwater before crews arrived, Indian River County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Lonn Benham said.

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He credited a group of bystanders for saving the man's life.



"(They) lifted him up and got his head out of the water," Benham said. "They really did a great job."

Among the bystanders was an off-duty firefighter, Alex Nielsen of Indian River County Fire Rescue.

Nielsen's wife, Briana Nielsen, said her husband was on his way to work when he was flagged down by a woman near the scene.

"She showed him the car (upside down) in the canal, so he ran down to save him while she went and gathered some other people," Briana Nielsen said.

Nielsen and a group of motorists managed to tip the car on its side, then the motorists held the man's head above water as Nielsen began trying to free him from the wreck.

When responding crews arrived, Nielsen pitched in to extract the wounded driver, who was taken by ambulance to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce with non-life threatening injuries.

Briana Nielsen said that impulse to help is why her husband became a firefighter in the first place.

"It's who he is as a person," she said. "He just loves people. He wants to save people."

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County fire officials would not allow Nielsen to be interviewed by TCPalm for this story.

The driver of the blue sedan was taken to Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital as a precaution, Jones said.

The crash closed 66th Avenue in both directions for about two hours.

The identities of those involved in the crash were not available Tuesday.

Eric Rogers is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm and FLORIDA TODAY.

Contact Rogers at 772-978-2224 or eric.rogers@tcpalm.com. Follow him on Twitter @EricRogersFT.

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