Finally close enough to the woman to be able to converse, he yelled that he was going to push the vehicle away with his legs and hopefully she could pass the child out to him. She nodded.

He looked up, his back to the bridge, sitting on the ledge, and braced his legs either side of the window. He picked a moment when the car was being drawn back by the current, and locked his legs in place. ‘Give her to me now,’ he shouted. The woman fed the child out through the window, into Gillard’s arms. He used a loop of rope under the crying little girl’s arms, and tightened the slip knot around her chest just as the next turn of the current pressed the vehicle back against the base of the bridge. He looked up to the parapet and saw helmets and the beige uniform of the fire service. Strong arms pulled the little girl up and onto the parapet above him. The water inside the car was now chin high on the woman, and she was beginning to scream in panic. He knew that there was a good chance the car would now turn over because there would be more air in the tyres than any other part of it. If it did that her chances of survival were slim.

He tried again and again to press the car back away from the bridge, but it was no good. As he looked up at the river which was now illuminated by more powerful lights from the bridge, he could see at least two caravans floating down towards him. Another figure descended from the parapet, a beefy firefighter on a harness with a hefty cordless cutter in his hands. After sharing bellowed greetings, he balanced on one branch of the tree, setting to work with the reciprocating saw. First he cut the edges of the windscreen and then the metal post between windscreen and side window. It allowed Gillard to peel back the roof and rip open a bigger gap. The woman began to wriggle out, sobbing with relief. Somehow, she was bundled up to a rescue harness, and then lifted to the parapet. Gillard followed soon afterwards, hauled up on his rope, into Sam’s waiting arms.

‘Well done, Craig,’ she said. ‘That was fantastic. I knew you could do it.’

‘I didn’t, but I had to try,’ he replied.

The woman and her child had been put in a people carrier out of the rain, shrouded in various coats and plied with biscuits. A woman who said she was a nurse was tending to the child on the back seat. Gillard crouched down to talk to the mother through the window.

‘Thank you so much, I’ll never forget what you did for me and for Keeley,’ she said. ‘Did you get the other woman?’

‘Which other woman?’ Gillard asked.

‘There was another car just round the other side of the pier. It was a little yellow one, I think, just rolling over and over and over in the water. There’s definitely someone inside. I saw a glimpse of blonde hair when the cars were side-by-side.’