82 year old man hydroplanes into river, swims to shore and walks home in Spring Lake
SPRING LAKE, N.C. (WTVD) -- Sunday night is Schnitzel Night at the local VFW. You can bet on that.
The way Bill Cable survived his trip home from the VFW is nothing you'd bet on or believe.
"I was going to come home, but I didn't make it," Cable laughed on Monday morning. "That's all. Just a little bump in the road."
Cable, 82, hydroplaned off Manchester Road, falling 30 feet into the Little River. It was around 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. by his memory. Heavy rains and wind enveloped him. He was trapped in the car.
"And we was floating, boom, boom, boom," he described. "I had water up to my chest."
Somehow Cable, a Vietnam veteran, was able to break through the passenger side window and start swimming. War day instinct may have kicked in.
"Well yeah, all of us get survival training," Cable said nonchalantly, while smoking a cigarette and sitting on a brick ledge under his carport.
Half-an-hour later, the 2003 Toyota Camry had floated about a 100 feet from where Cable landed, and Cable saw the flashing Starlight Motel lights. He made it to dry ground. Dozens of scratches and cuts along his legs show what he fought to get there.
Cable decided to walk the mile-and-a-half home, and deal with authorities and the car the next morning.
"Took off my clothes, naturally," he said. "Took a shower. Sat out here and had a cigarette. Well, had two cigarettes, really, and went to bed."
But before he could wake up and tell police what happened, a town employee was at his door early Monday morning. That employee had spotted Cable's car in the river, ran the license plates and came to make sure the man was alive as Cumberland County and Fort Bragg divers and boat teams searched for him.
"That's my only regret -- that those guys were out there looking for me," said Cable, explaining his cell phone had also drowned.
Otherwise, he would have made that call Sunday night.
"Then maybe there wouldn't have all that commotion down there, you know, looking' for my body," he quipped.
"He's fortunate to be alive, yes," said T. J. McLamb, Spring Lake's Fire Chief, as he oversaw the car recovery efforts Monday afternoon. "Just him going into the river and being 82 years old, being able to climb out on his own...He's definitely fortunate to be alive. He's a tough veteran, that's for sure."
"Well, my back hurts a little, but I'm fine," shrugged Cable. "Had my coffee, had my cigarette...I'm good to go."
Cable never went to get checked out, and he never wondered if he swam those waters alone.
"Fish? If there was I caught 'em and brought 'em home to eat!" he exclaimed.
"Fish, grits, and your cigarettes?" we asked.
"You darn right," he replied
Sunday night was Cable's first accident ever.
He'll be getting a new car ASAP and going back to Schnitzel night.
"You gotta go someday," he said. "You never know when you're gonna go. So enjoy life to the fullest every day."
