ALLENTOWN, Pa. – A man’s van plunged into Little Lehigh Creek and began filling up with rushing water. Tonight, that man spoke exclusively with 69 News.<\/p>\n
Tom Crawford, 87, was on his way home to pick up his wife of 40 years, when he lost control of his van and ended up in the water.<\/p>\n
Thanks to first responders, he walked away.<\/p>\n
Tom and his wife, Susan, have something to be really thankful for this Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n
“Hits the creek and goes like this and I’m thinking \u2018Oh my God, I\u2019m gonna drown,” Tom laughs as he tells 69 News reporter Rick Holmes.<\/p>\n
The fact that Tom and his wife Susan are together to stroll through the Allentown Farmers Market is a small miracle. Just four hours earlier, he was coming home from making a delivery when he lost control of his van.<\/p>\n
“No brakes! What am I gonna do? If I go left, it shoots me out across MLK Blvd,” Tom says.<\/p>\n
Tom went right down an embankment and into Little Lehigh Creek. He struggled as water began coming up over his driver’s side.<\/p>\n
“And I thought, ‘I’ll crawl out the window.’ Well, I’m 87 years old how am I going to pull myself out the window?” Tom says.<\/p>\n
Just a few miles away, Susan was waiting for her husband to pick her up to go to the Allentown Farmers Market.<\/p>\n
“And he’s not showing up. Because he had a little errand, and I was getting very aggravated. Tried to call him,” Suzan recalls.<\/p>\n
Tom decided to escape through the passenger-side door. By the time he got out, police and fire told him to stay where he was, and they rescued him.<\/p>\n
“You’re racing home so we could get over here to get our turkey, for Thanksgiving, and the next minute, you’re in a creek up to your chest in water,” Tom says. “My car is upside down in the creek. And I’m like, ‘Really?’ I didn’t believe it.”<\/p>\n
Tom got away with no injuries. Not even a trip to the hospital. And it\u2019s a story they’ll be telling at the Thanksgiving table for years to come.<\/p>\n
“Thankful that my husband got home. In one piece,\u201d Suzan says.<\/p>\n
“I’m thankful I’m here. Basically, really, absolutely,” Tom adds.<\/p>\n
And they got down to the Farmers Market.<\/p>\n
They got their turkey, a 10-pounder, which they will share with their 3 kids, 7 grandchildren, and their great grandson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. – A man’s van plunged into Little Lehigh Creek and began filling up with rushing water.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[119,153,155,154,4032,1510,26418,812,1274,26625],"class_list":{"0":"post-44800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-bethlehem","10":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","11":"tag-bethlehem-news","12":"tag-emergency-services","13":"tag-family","14":"tag-little-lehigh-creek","15":"tag-rescue","16":"tag-thanksgiving","17":"tag-van-crash"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}