Kelowna RCMP Const. Jennifer Hunter said she was just doing her job as a police officer.

But for a Kelowna resident, Hunter’s actions probably saved her life after the car she was driving eastbound veered off McKinley Road and over an embankment into the McKinley Reservoir at about 9:30 a.m. on Thursday morning.

Police say the driver of the black Ford Mustang was the registered owner and a resident of the area.

Hunter, with the help of three people who stopped to help, was able to break open the back window using a knife with a carbide tip, a high strength steel commonly used in drill bits.

Time was a factor as the car was beginning to slide into the deeper water, and the female driver was pinned by the rising water inside the car, finding a small air pocket next to the rear window.

Forming a human chain link, Hunter was able to pull the woman from the car as it continued to submerge.

Kelowna RCMP Const. Ann Morrison said the driver was in shock, with scrapes and bruises on her hands, when she was pulled from the car, so police were unable to confirm initially if there were others in the car.

A police dog was brought in to search the car’s interior with only the left side of the rear end still above the waterline.

It took more than 20 minutes for the driver to warm up enough to give RCMP the information that she had been alone in the car when it went off the road and into the reservoir.

Hunter, a four-year veteran with the RCMP, downplayed her role as a hero in saving the driver’s life, saying she was just doing her job.

“We respond to different situations every day,” Hunter said. “You just do your best and hope everything turns out alright.”

She said the instrument she used to break the window was an RCMP graduation gift she received from her father, who is a retired police officer.

While there was some speculation that the driver herself made the 911 call that initially resulted in Hunter being dispatched to the scene, police were unable to confirm that.

Jack Cranston, a McKinley Landing resident who stopped to help, said he was about to call 911 himself when Hunter arrived on the scene.

Cranston said the situation turned frightening when they could see the woman was trapped and the car started sliding into the deeper water.

“When I arrived I could see the car was already in the water. It was unusual because you never see anything in the reservoir to begin with,” said Cranston, who has lived in McKinley Landing for six years.

The RCMP blamed slick winter driving conditions as a likely cause of the single-car accident, but Cranston said he didn’t consider the lack of barricades around the reservoir a danger.

“You just have to drive carefully but a lot of people do cheat going around the corners,” Cranston said.

The Kelowna Fire Department Hazmat team was also called in to help contain fuel that may have leaked from the gas tank into the reservoir, with the assistance of a dive team.

edit@kelownacapnews.com