The outcome could have been much different had it not been for a concerned citizen and the effort of South Simcoe Police to locate an 84-year-old woman.
The person contacted police shortly before midnight on Tuesday after spotting a vehicle in a ditch on a rural stretch of the 4th Line in Bradford. The citizen alerted officers because the area was secluded and the time of night.
Police arrived and found the car sunken into a ditch, abandoned but still running. They learned the registered owner was an 84-year-old woman from Innisfil, and a search of the vehicle turned up her purse and identification inside. The woman was nowhere in sight and police started to search the area.
Other officers were sent to the woman's home. As police began walking alongside the road, an officer heard a faint voice calling for help. Police found the woman about 200 metres from the road stuck in thick mud in a field. She was disoriented and had become stuck in the mud after she wandered away from her vehicle looking for help. Police say she was not dressed for the cold weather.
Officers carried the woman to the roadway where they wrapped her in one of their police coats, gave her a hat and blanket before placing her in a cruiser to warm up until paramedics arrived.
The woman was transported to the hospital as a precaution and her family was notified.
Police are praising the citizen who reported the vehicle, adding the individual along with the effort of the officers who attended saved the woman's life.
