NEW BERN, N.C. — A New Bern police lieutenant and a fire-rescue captain pulled a man from a car that had driven off a boat ramp and was sinking in the Neuse River, according to two local reports citing city officials.
Watch WCTI's report on the New Bern river rescue
Video report: WCTI NewsChannel 12. ThinBlueNews embeds the publisher-provided media URL and does not rehost the footage. If the player does not load, watch or read the report at WCTI.
The response unfolded Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Union Point Park boat ramp. WCTI NewsChannel 12 reported that New Bern Fire & Rescue and police arrived with the vehicle about 30 yards from shore.
Police lieutenant and fire captain reach the driver
City public information officer Colleen Roberts told the New Bern Sun Journal that New Bern Police Lt. Jason Williams and New Bern Fire & Rescue Capt. Justin Sawyer safely removed the man from the car.
WCTI reported that the car floated briefly before it began to sink. Sawyer and the police officer reached the driver and got him out within minutes of arriving, according to the station's account.
Sawyer told WCTI that crews relied on their training during the unusual call. ThinBlueNews is paraphrasing that account rather than reproducing the station's full quotation.
Driver reported safe; cause remains unknown
WCTI reported that the man was pulled from the water and was not hurt. The Sun Journal said he was taken to CarolinaEast after the rescue and that city officials had received no subsequent report of a medical problem.
Neither report identified the driver. ThinBlueNews is also withholding his identity.
Officials had not determined why the car went down the boat ramp. Roberts told the Sun Journal that she had no information supporting speculation about a medical emergency, intoxication, substance use or a mental-health crisis. ThinBlueNews is making no claim about the cause or the driver's state before the rescue.
The Sun Journal reported that police did not have an active special investigation into the incident beyond a crash report. Crews later recovered the vehicle from the river, WCTI reported.
A coordinated public-safety response
The rescue required a rapid response across New Bern's civilian police and fire-rescue services. Their actions moved the driver out of a sinking vehicle and to safety before the car was recovered.
Readers can find more verified service stories in our law enforcement news, police rescue news and positive police news sections.
Sources and visual disclosure
- New Bern Sun Journal — Aug. 17, 2026 report citing city public information officer Colleen Roberts and naming Lt. Jason Williams and Capt. Justin Sawyer.
- WCTI NewsChannel 12 — Aug. 13 report, updated Aug. 14, on the rescue and vehicle recovery.
- WCTI publisher-provided 2:07 MP4 used by the embedded player.
Visual note: The source reports displayed incident-related images and video, but no license for republishing those pixels as ThinBlueNews's featured image was established. ThinBlueNews therefore used an original symbolic card that is explicitly labeled as not an incident image. The WCTI report is embedded from the publisher's own media host and is not downloaded or reuploaded.
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