Just on his second week of work, Oscar Soden became a “citizen hero” for saving a life.
Aboard a pink Fort Lauderdale Water Shuttle, the 19-year-old’s job is to help ferry people down the New
River. But on June 7, 2016, a Tuesday afternoon, he played a crucial role in rescuing a man who was in the water. Soden jumped into the rough waters and pulled the man to safety.
The events began on Tuesday afternoon when the water shuttle turned the corner toward the Riverfront Plaza and Oscar Soden saw the man in the water.
Another vessel, a city Water Trolley, had thrown the man in the water an orange floatation device, but he wasn’t grabbing it. His head kept bobbing under the water, as if the man was trying to submerge himself. Oscar then grabbed him and kept his head above the water, tucking a buoy under the man’s arm and dragging him through the water and back to the shuttle.
“It was kind of an impulse to jump, I wasn’t really thinking, I was just swimming,” Soden said.