Storm Henk: Watch hero dad save woman and child trapped in sinking car

A hero dad has spoken about how he saved a woman and her three-year-old daughter after he saw their car being swept away in a flooded river. Liam Stych, 28, leapt into the raging torrent after hearing the woman screaming for help.

Dramatic video shows the woman’s car being dragged under a footbridge as floods surged through Hall Green in Birmingham at 4.15pm on Tuesday (January 2).

The fearless dad dangled off the bridge and smashed the rear passenger window, using ratchet straps to lash the woman’s Fiat Punto to railings to stop it sinking. Incredibly, he saved the little girl by "hurling" her into the lap of his pregnant partner Tia Draper, 27, who was standing on the bridge.

West Midlands Police hailed Liam a “local hero” but the modest dad-of-two insisted he just acted “on instinct”. He said: “My partner is five months pregnant so we went out for a walk for some exercise.

“We were walking over a bridge and I heard a woman screaming from inside a car. She was shouting ‘Help me, help me, please save my baby she’s in the back!’ The front of her car was pointing down into the water so I dangled off the bridge but was careful not to put any more weight on the car in case it sank. I told the woman to remain calm and unwind her window and to hand me her child.

“I said to her ‘Give me babbie’s hand, I’ll get her out’. The woman could only get her window half-way down so I took the babbie and literally hurled her behind me and into the lap of Tia who was on the bridge.”

The roadworks engineer and traffic manager then sprinted back to his work van and grabbed a set of 3.5 tonne ratchet straps. He said: “Once the babbie was safe I ran to get the straps and climbed back to the car and smashed the back passenger window.

“I secured the car to the bridge with the ratchet straps so it wouldn’t drift any further under the bridge. I then told the woman to climb into the back and get out the window. She managed to get out and we then held hands and just jumped together into the water after a count of three.

“It was about 5ft deep but was really strong and I dragged her out of the water. The ambulance crew turned up and checked her and the child over. I think if I hadn’t done what I did the car would have been dragged under the bridge and there would have been no way of getting them out.”

Liam, who has two children from a previous relationship, said he wanted people to understand the lethal danger of floods. He said: “It was pure luck that we were there when it happened. I didn't think about what I was doing, I just acted on instinct.

“The poor lady has lost her car and her shopping which was in the back but she and her daughter could have lost their lives. People don’t understand how powerful floods can be.

“It’d been raining heavily but the roads suddenly turned into rivers and the streams turned into raging rivers. I just managed to stay calm and thought clearly about what needed to be done. I didn’t want to make the situation worse by panicking and sinking the car with my weight. My only thought was to get them both out safely.”