911 call, good Samaritan detail water rescue of teens at Springfield dam

SPRINGFIELD, Tenn. (WSMV) - The 911 call and a good Samaritan describe the rescue efforts that helped pull two teenage girls out of the water below a dam and prevented two teenaged girls from drowning.

The incident happened on Jan. 8 near the Robertson County Fairgrounds. One of the teenage girls was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

Robertson County emergency officials told WSMV4 that the 17-year-old girl is still hospitalized at TriStar Centennial Children’s Hospital in Nashville.

Many in the community are praying for her to recover, especially after crews who were at the scene that day said the teen didn’t have a heartbeat at one point after she was pulled from the water.

WSMV4 received the 911 call from a couple who saw the teens in the water.

Dispatch: 911, what’s the location of your emergency?

Caller: We got two teenage girls in the water at the old dam down by the fairgrounds. We need emergency services immediately. One looks to be unconscious.

It’s the voice of the man trying to get help to save two teen girls from drowning by the dam on Jan. 8.

Dispatch: Can you tell if they’re breathing?

Caller: One is. One does not look like she is.

While the man was making that call, officials said his wife was trying to get their dog leash to the girls to help get them out of the water.

“The gentleman that called 911 and the lady that was throwing the leash, had they not done that, to me and my husband, we feel like they’re heroes because of what they did,” Angela Looney said. “We just had a small part in helping pull them out of the water.”

Looney was one of the people who first responders said helped pull the two teenage girls out of the water.

Looney’s small part made a big difference in the rescue of the girls. She said her and her husband were driving over the bridge by the creek when her husband noticed someone in the water.

“He saw her and immediately made a U-turn in the middle of Memorial Boulevard, and we parked and took off running cause one, it was too cold, and two, you just know something was wrong when somebody is in the water with the temperatures what they were,” Looney said. “My husband went down and got in the water so he can try to grab her. I was holding on to him. He grabbed her. I had him, and we helped lift her off the rocks and get her up to the top where EMS got there and could start CPR on her.”

Looney has a background in law enforcement and her husband is in law enforcement. That background helped them notice what was happening in the creek as they drove over the bridge.

“I think that just helps us notice things that other people wouldn’t, and every time we go over the bridge, we just always check the water to see if it’s high, not ever expecting to see someone in it,” Looney said.

First responders said the two girls were trying to get a ball and clear debris from the creek when the 17-year-old slipped and fell in. That’s when her 16-year-old friend jumped in to try to save her.

Caller: One of the girls is already turned blue, looks like.

Dispatch: Can you still see both the girls?

Caller: Yea, one of the girls is swimming. She’s got a hold to the other one.

Looney said she’s praying not only for the 17-year-old still in the hospital, but also the couple who played a major role in saving both the girls.

“I would just tell their family that God has big things planned for both of those girls,” Looney said. “That husband and wife, in our opinion, they’re heroes and I hope they’re doing OK too because when you’re not used to seeing it, it can have an effect on you as well, no matter what your role was.”

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