Video shows moment training exercise became real-life rescue

It was a case of being in the right place at the right time for an emergency responder in Texas who saved a young boy from drowning in a rapidly flowing river. 

Special Operations Commander Craig Smith was in the middle of teaching a swift-water rescue class on Texas’ Comal River, when he spotted a child who had been swept out of his inner tube by a fierce current and dragged under the water.

Wasting no time, he can be heard on GoPro footage saying “I’ll go in after him”, before plunging in with a line and pulling the boy to safety. 

“I just jumped,” Commander Smith said. 

“This kid comes down and he falls off his tube immediately and goes down. When he came up, he was actually looking straight at us and he had this look of panic on his face. His hair was down over his face and he was clawing for air, he was trying to get up.”

Commander Smith told KXAN News it was the first time a training exercise turned into a life or death situation, but said the near-drowning served to show how dangerous the water can be.

“Water is the most unpredictable environment that we have. And it can take your life in an instant.

“Had somebody not been there, this kid would have likely drowned. And no one would have known where he was,” he said.

The child was unhurt in the incident and the vision of the incredible rescue will now be used by the Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services as a PSA on how to identify signs of drowning.