ST. PETERSBURG – Bradenton resident Eric Astemborski’s swift actions and quick thinking helped save a motorist who crashed his car on I-275, north of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.
Astemborski, a commercial fisherman, also owns and operates the St. Petersburg-based Better Bait Company. His grandparents, Bill and Mary Cedar, once owned the Cedar Cove Resort in Holmes Beach.
Around noon on July 24, Astemborski was out on his bait barge near O’Neill’s Marina and the Dick Misener Bridge when he saw a southbound white Tesla veer off the highway at a high rate of speed.
“He crashed about 75 yards behind my bait barge. He hydroplaned across a drainage ditch for about 70-80 yards and just missed a light pole. It’s only a couple feet deep and he was skimming across the top of the water, going pretty fast. When he got to the other side, the car went 20-25 feet up in the air, did a couple flips and landed on the bank,” Astemborski said.
“I rushed off the bait barge, got in my boat and called 911. The Tesla was sitting on the bank, right on the edge of the water. The driver wasn’t thrown into the water. He must’ve climbed out of the car or been ejected. When I found him, he was crawling out of a bush next to the car. I pulled right up to him, and he was kind of walking out into the water. When I tried to pull him up in the boat, he said his arm was broken. I jumped in the water, picked him up and made the decision to take him to Maximo Boat Ramp instead of trying to get the paramedics to meet him there. I rushed him to the boat ramp and EMS started giving him medical attention,” Astemborski said.
Astemborski was asked how it feels to potentially save someone’s life.
“I definitely saved him 20 to 30 minutes of being out there by himself. He was way up in the mangroves, and he went across the pond. It wouldn’t have been easy for anybody to get to him. I might have saved his life. He was in bad shape when I found him. When I pulled him up on the boat he lost consciousness, his eyes closed, he quit talking to me and he wasn’t moving. I thought he might be dead.
“He’s lucky to be alive. When I pulled up to the car, I thought for sure somebody would be dead. When I pulled up to him, I asked if anyone else was in the car and he said no. But when he regained consciousness at the boat ramp, when the paramedics were getting him off the boat, he said his 16-year-old sister was in the car with him. I rushed back out there yelling for her, looking in the car, looking in the mangroves and I couldn’t find her. By that time, the paramedics had arrived and we were looking through the car trying to find a purse, a cell phone, or anything relating to her. That’s what really shook me up. When I got home, I didn’t know if he was going to be alright. I didn’t know if his sister was trapped underneath the car and we couldn’t see her. The car landed on a bunch of concrete pilings they took down from the Skyway and put on the bank. We couldn’t see underneath the car. Come to find out, she wasn’t actually in the car,” he said.
Astemborski later received a text message from the Tesla driver thanking him for his actions.
“He was discharged the next day,” Astemborski said. “He’s okay. He’s got a bunch of stitches in his face, he messed up his arm and he had a severe concussion, but nothing life-changing.”
Astemborski hopes to meet up with the driver again under more pleasant circumstances. He did not provide the driver’s name. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the driver, whose name was not released, is 25 years old and was not wearing a seat belt.
Astemborski’s cousin, Steven LaParl, lives in Holmes Beach.
“He was a hero,” LaParl said. “He might have saved the guy’s life. He called me right afterward. He was shaken up and didn’t know if the guy was gonna live.”
