Cop saves choking woman during traffic stop

A US police officer's awkward but effective effort to save a choking woman during a traffic stop has been captured on camera.

Kalamazoo, Michigan officer Jason Gates said he didn't plan on issuing the unidentified woman a ticket for running a red light on Saturday but felt it was job to at least stop and talk to her.

But when he approached her car, he found the woman coughing and unable to breathe.

In the dashcam footage, Mr Gates can be heard asking the driver if she is choking before grabbing her around the waist and performing three Heimlich thrusts.

With the obstruction finally free, the woman begins to sob and then throws her arms around the officer.

"For a second or so, I thought she may have been trying to get out of a ticket," he told 24 Hour News 8.

"I tried to dislodge the item from her throat by hitting her on the back, and when that did not work, I used the Heimlich manoeuvre for the first time in my nine-year career, and it worked," Mr Gates said.

Source: WOODTV
Author: Chloe Ross, Approving editor: Martin Zavan