The rescue attempt meant a 150-foot swan dive into the Hudson River, but volunteer firefighter Daniel Santos stopped only to leave his wallet with a bystander.
Today, he is Page One news and a hero.Santos' commute Monday afternoon ended on the Tappan Zee Bridge when, just ahead of him, a woman slammed her Chevrolet Blazer into a railing, got out and jumped into the river.
The 21-year-old Santos reacted in what friends said was predictable fashion. He got out of his pickup truck, walked to the rail, left the wallet, looked over the edge and dove in, state police investigator Michael Kopy said.
The drop left both Santos and the woman, Maria Cappozza, 24, of Greenwich, Conn., injured and semiconscious, but alive.
"I was surprised . . . but then I thought, `No, that fits,' " said Mike Marletta, a co-worker at Fleet Pump Co. in Harrison, where Santos is a technician.
"I have sons of my own," Marletta said. "I'd be satisfied if they grow up to be like him."
Added Elizabeth Rivas, another co-worker: "He's just the sort of guy who wouldn't hesitate to help someone. He wouldn't think about it twice."
Santos was in serious condition and in "severe pain," said his sister, Maria Santos. Cappozza's condition was not made public at the request of her family.
Santos was able to swim to the woman and reached her at about the same time as a boat from a nearby marina, Kopy said.
"Both were in a lot of pain," said Ted Tenen, one of the men in the boat. "His back was all black and blue. He was in so much pain I don't know how he was swimming."
Kopy said it may have been the first time anyone lived through such a leap from the Tappan Zee Bridge, which spans the Hudson in New York City's northern suburbs.