On the Ed Show tonight, Scott Prouty disclosed that he’d been warned that going public with the infamous “47%” video was either “incredibly brave or incredibly stupid.”
Prouty says he reflected on those words for a moment, then said, “Well, the last incredibly brave or incredibly stupid thing I did–looking back on it–is one of the proudest moments of my life.”
Prouty is talking about the day he risked his life to save a stranger in late September of 2005. According to town records in Davie and Weston, Florida, a woman drove off I-75 at Griffin Road and landed in the canal. Prouty says he was working in the Honda dealership nearby and when he heard about the crash he ran to help. This section of road is part of Alligator Alley, which runs through the Everglades and, yes, is infested with alligators.
Prouty says he couldn’t get the driver’s seat belt off, so he called a co-worker and asked him to bring a knife. Prouty and co-worker Adriel Forbes dove into the water to cut the seat belt so they could free the driver. They carried her to shore where another former-co-worker, Lee Swasey, performed CPR. Prouty and Forbes then spotted a car seat floating in the water. Prouty dove repeatedly into the murky canal, looking for a child. Fortunately, the woman had been alone in the car.
The towns of Weston and Davie both honored Scott Prouty, Lee Swasey and Adriel Forbes in the months following the crash.
Prouty told Ed the experience of saving a life stuck with him and inspired him to take another risk almost exactly 7 years later:
“So, you know, I think we’re going to roll the dice here and we’re going to go down that path one more time, because it worked. I’m glad I did it then, and I think–I slept at night because I didn’t watch this woman drown in her car… I was able to live with myself because I jumped in and was–you know, those other people on the bank and a couple of other people trying to help. But I was able to go and pull her out and dive back down and look for the baby.”
“But I came out of it okay. She survived, but I’m glad. It’s one of the proudest moments of my life. And it was–it was something that said, ‘You know what? If you can jump in, jump in’. And I had a chance to jump in with this again, and so I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to jump in one more time.’ And this has worked out the way I would have hoped.”
Did Prouty’s release of the 47% tape work the way he hoped? Read here.
Jen Brockman