Woman thanks Good Samaritan, police who rescued her from sinking car in Hawthorne

HAWTHORNE, New Jersey (WABC) -- There was a heartfelt reunion for a woman and the Good Samaritan who helped rescue her from an icy lake in New Jersey.

Her car careened into the water off a slick road in Hawthorne Sunday morning.

"When it first happened, I was just looking around me to see what was going on, but I saw that one man right there," said Fatuma Kamara, victim.

It was a dire situation for Kamara just a day ago, but there was a reassuring face standing in the water right outside the 23-year-old's window.

"You were the very first person I saw jump in there and you kept telling me, 'It's going to be ok, it's going to be ok,'" Kamara said.

And those where the comforting words that helped Kamara keep her cool, Sunday morning around 9:30 a.m., when her Ford Taurus slid off an icy Goffle Road in Hawthorne, and into a partially frozen pond in Goffle Brook Park.

"The car just went up on the icy side of the road, next thing I know I was headed into the water, I didn't even have time to react," Kamara said.

"She did say, 'I'm going to die, I'm going to die,' she said it a few times," said Don McEwan, a Good Samaritan.

So without hesitation, 50-year-old McEwan, took off his boots and outer layers and jumped in.

"I had a small tool that somebody handed me that as you punch it should break the window, and I must have hit it 50 times, 100 times, but it didn't break," McEwan said.

McEwan says the water only came up to his chest, about three or 4 feet, so actually he was able to walk into the pond to the stranded car. He says he wasn't the only person to stop and help.

"Pickup truck stopped and he got a rope and he held that rope the entire time," McEwan said. "He fixed it...the whole time."

A Hawthorne police officer also jumped in. He was ultimately able to break the glass with his baton, and pull Kamara out.

"I came out without not even scratch, I'm just so thankful, that's all I can say because I don't know how I came out of that," Kamara said.