‘Heroes’ to the rescue: Driver pulled from SUV that crashed into pond in Pawleys Island

One might say it was all in a day’s work for Lee Miller and Lee Davis.

The men, both maintenance workers with the Georgetown County School District, were driving down Kings River Road on their way to Waccamaw Middle School on a rainy morning on Feb. 20. Little did they know that around the bend ahead, two cars had just collided at the intersection with Tradition Club Drive.

One of the cars, a Toyota SUV, crashed into a pond just off the road. And the driver, 91-year-old Michael Bivona, was trapped inside the car.

At the time of the crash, around 10 a.m., Nick Riccio was in the garage of his home at the end of Heston Court, about 50 yards from the pond. He heard a “thud,” so he went inside to ask Sharon Kurpen if something had happened. He went back outside and saw the Toyota half submerged in the pond.

Riccio yelled for Sharon to call 911 as he ran to the edge of the pond. He could see Bivano in the driver’s seat. The air bag had deployed.

“He was slumped over the steering wheel,” Riccio said. But Bivano didn’t respond to Riccio’s yells or hand signals. “We didn’t see any movement.”

By that time, Miller and Davis had pulled up and were standing at the pond’s edge. That’s when Riccio saw Miller jump into the pond and start making his way toward the car with the water coming up to his chest.

Riccio, who is in his 70s, pulled out his phone and started taking pictures and filming. As he watched Miller moving toward the car, a flash of worry crossed his mind — in the past, he and Sharon have seen small alligators in the pond.

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Lee Miller, left, and Lee Davis helped rescue a man from his SUV after it crashed into a pond along Kings River Road on Feb. 20. Both men work for the Georgetown County School District.
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Miller waded over to the driver’s side of the SUV, but he couldn’t get the door open.

“It was messed up,” Miller recalled about the door. So he moved around to the other side of the vehicle and was able to open the passenger’s door.

A blast of smoke hit him in the face.

“When I opened that passenger door, it almost took my breath away,” Miller said about the smoke coming from the Toyota’s electrical system.

Bivona was conscious, but water was rushing into the car, causing it to slowly sink in the murky pond.

“All right, we’re getting you out of here. You ready?” Miller told Bivona.

“Yea,” Bivona replied.

“I snatched him out,” Miller said.

With Bivona holding on to him, Miller grabbed on to the car as he moved around it.

“The water was freezing cold,” Miller said, and the muddy bottom made it difficult to stand up.

The two men slowly made their way to shore where Lee Davis pulled them out. The first firetruck had just arrived on scene.

Miller and Davis attended to Bivona while he was lying on the grass. It had started raining again, so they went to their van and grabbed the beach umbrella they use while working on school rooftops and set it up over Bivona.

Sharon captured a photo of the moment, with both Lees knelt down beside Bivona.

“They’re really heroes,” Riccio said about Davis and Miller.

Bivona and the other driver, John Moyik, were taken to hospitals for treatment. The South Carolina Highway Patrol said they suffered minor injuries.

The accident happened when Moyik was turning left from Tradition Club Drive onto Kings River, according to the Highway Patrol. Moyik turned in front of Bivona, who hit the driver’s side of Moyik’s Honda before going into the pond.

Firefighters had to extricate Moyik from his car.

Miller said they passed Moyik’s Honda just after the accident and then saw the SUV in the pond. They pulled over and got out of their van.

Bivona was holding his chest and looking at them, Miller said.

“I looked at Lee. He looked at me. We realized we had to get (Bivona)” out of the car, Miller said.

In the aftermath, Miller wasn’t able to get Bivona’s name before he was taken to the hospital.

“There was so much going on,” Miller said.

Once the scene was clear, the two men headed back to work.

Miller, who is 35 and a native of Georgetown County, said he’d never been in a situation like that before.

“It felt good to be able to help him,” Miller said.

Afterward, Sharon took a picture of the Lees standing by their van, with Miller changed into a dry shirt. She and Riccio said the men need to be recognized for the their courageous act.

“Good Samaritans,” as Sharon put it.