Community members in Champaign, Illinois, have been honoured for rescuing a 90-year-old woman from a submerged car.

On August 11, the elderly driver lost control during a storm and her vehicle plunged into a flooded retention pond on North Prospect Avenue, sinking to its roof.

Ben Busboom-Miller did not hesitate. He swam out, smashed a window with a rock and pulled the woman through the back window as the car filled with water.

Two AT&T store workers, Jennifer Harmon and Noel Garcia, helped from the bank, along with four Champaign police officers who entered the water.

On September 29, the three community members received Community Lifesaving Awards, while the four officers got the Chief’s Challenge Coin.

The 90-year-old driver attended the ceremony and thanked the people who saved her life. Her son, a US Coast Guard officer, praised their “quick and heroic actions”.

Busboom-Miller needed stitches on his fingers but said he would do it again “in a split second”.