On vacation in Slovenia

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Daniel Zelger from Lödersdorf became a lifesaver.

(Bild: zVg)

A car plunged into the sea, the driver and her four-year-old grandson were unable to free themselves - but a Styrian man became a lifesaver during his vacation in Slovenia. He describes the dramatic minutes to the "Krone" newspaper.

Austrians rarely get such positive headlines abroad: Daniel Zelger (40) from south-east Styria is currently being celebrated in Slovenia. The reason: he became a double lifesaver.

Last Sunday, Zelger wanted to go on a bike tour in Izola with his wife: "Suddenly I heard a splash and a loud metallic scratch," he tells the newspaper "Krone": a car had crashed into the sea just ten meters away. As it turned out later, the driver had probably let go of the clutch too quickly in a parking lot, causing the car to plunge over the edge of the pier into the water and initially float on the surface.

Child seat opened with one hand
In the back seat: the four-year-old grandson! "I immediately knew I had to get the boy out and jumped into the water," says Zelger. The driver didn't react in shock, so the Styrian opened the rear door - water got in and the car started to sink. "It was very lucky that I was able to get the child seat open in one go." The man from Lödersdorf grabbed the frightened boy, who was still trying to cling on, and brought him to land about three meters away.

Then he also picked up the driver: although she had managed to free herself in the meantime, she was still holding on to the car door. Both are fine: "They don't even have any scratches. I'm very happy about that."

Zelger, who was a paramedic but has no lifeguard training, is currently still on vacation and is trying to come to terms with the incident: "You do think what would have happened if I hadn't been able to get the child seat open and had to watch the boy drown."