Hannah Meneses was running late to meet a friend last Friday, but as she approached the bridge over Davis Stream in Jefferson, she took a moment to admire the way the sun was shining on the little village.

Glancing at the stream to see if there was still ice, she saw what looked like the rear end of a car sticking out of the water.

Within seconds, Meneses was out of her car and running down the embankment, setting off a rescue that police say likely saved the life of the driver.

Hannah Meneses trained for the swimming portion of a triathlon just a mile from where a car went into Davis Stream. Photo courtesy of Hannah Meneses

“Clearly they were the difference-makers in that event,” Lt. Brendan Kane of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office said of Meneses and another passerby who rushed to help the driver. “Certainly the outcome would have been different if they hadn’t acted quickly. They were the heroes of the day.”

Kane said 60-year-old Richard Pauley was driving on Waldoboro Road in Jefferson around 1 p.m. on March 28 when his SUV went off the road, hit a sign and went down the embankment into the river. Police are still investigating why he went off the road and have not determined if charges will be filed, he said.

Meneses, a 39-year-old restaurant manager and fitness instructor from Whitefield, doesn’t typically take that road through Jefferson on her way to work in Damariscotta. And before last week, she wouldn’t have thought of herself as someone who would rush into a cold river to rescue someone.

For years, Meneses had recurring nightmares about driving off bridges, triggering an anxiety so deep that she would unbuckle her seat belt before driving over a bridge in case she needed to escape.

But none of that was on her mind as she ran down the embankment and yelled “Is there someone in the water?” to people on the other side. When they said yes, autopilot kicked in as she stripped off her outer layers and prepared to jump in.

“I remember looking at the water and thinking, ‘I am going to jump in and my breath will be taken away,'” said Meneses, who had trained for the swimming stretch of a triathlon about a mile from the crash site.

Meneses said she swam to the partially submerged car and vaguely remembers trying to prepare herself for what she might see. She tried to open the door, which didn’t budge. But she heard pounding from inside, so she swam to the other side of the car, trying again to open a door or break a window.

She swam back to shore to catch her breath and saw a young man who had stopped to help. He grabbed a long-handled socket wrench and smashed a small window in the SUV, allowing the man inside to tell them the water was up to his shoulders. When the other passerby — identified by police as Leon Ryan, of Waldoboro — got too cold to stay in the water, Meneses took the tool from him and swam back to the car.

Meneses saw the water was now up to the driver’s neck and smashed the rear window, pushing handfuls of glass out of the way so he could get out.

“I saw the man’s hand coming out the window, which was the most beautiful sight,” she said. “It was instantly replaced with the whole car going under the water with the man inside. It was terrifying.”

Meneses, who knew first responders were just arriving at the bridge, was gripped with panic at the idea that smashing the window had made things worse.

“I keep telling people I was never scared for myself during that whole experience, but that moment was one of the scariest of my entire life,” she said.

The next 10 seconds felt like an eternity, Meneses said.

She suddenly saw the glow of the driver’s skin under the water and realized he was swimming toward her. She reached out to him and said over and over, “You got this, keep going, you got this,” as they swam to shore.

Pauley was rushed to an ambulance and taken to a local hospital to be treated for exposure to the cold water, Kane said. Meneses was taken to a firetruck to warm up. She was uninjured but shaken up, and went to work for the evening.

Pauly’s car was removed from the river later that day. As word spread about the rescue, Meneses said she was still struggling to understand the magnitude of what happened.

“Everyone was reaching out to me saying I was a hero, but I didn’t feel like it,” she said.

Hannah Meneses says she’s had nightmares over the years about her car driving off a bridge. But when she saw a car submerged in Davis Stream, she didn’t hesitate to jump in to help rescue the driver. Photo courtesy of Hannah Meneses

She said she later talked to a firefighter who assured her she had done the right thing by smashing the window to help the driver get out. She also heard from Pauley’s wife; Meneses said she plans to meet with the wife soon and hopes to meet both Pauley and Ryan, the other rescuer.

Attempts to reach Pauley and Ryan on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Since the crash, Meneses has been encouraging people to buy a window-breaking device to keep in their car and not to hesitate if they are in a position to help someone.

“If you have the ability to help, you could save a life,” she said.