Man saves woman from being strangled by car wash

A car wash employee says she owes her life to a man who rushed to help her when her scarf became caught in a spinning scrubber brush and starting choking her.

Stephanie Carpluk says she was terrified as she desperately tried to free herself from the rotating brush while John O'Leary's car started moving through the Golden Nozzle car wash in Easthampton on Sunday morning.

"The spinner spun my scarf around so it pulled me closer," Carpluk explained. "I didn't know what to think. I didn't know what to do. I was just so scared."



Carpluk continued to struggle to remove the scarf before she lost consciousness. That's when O'Leary jumped out of his car and cut her free with a pocket knife. The next thing Carpluk remembers is waking up in the arms of a stranger who was encouraging her to breathe. "I started hearing little things like, 'You're breathing. You're going to be alright. You're back. Just stay with me, stay with me,'" Carpluk said.

After cutting Carpluk free from the scarf, O'Leary administered CPR until she began breathing again. "There's no question about it, I would have been dead if he hadn't come," Carpluk said. "I'm really lucky right there that he even had a pocket knife and knew how to do CPR."

Carpluk is recovering from severe bruising around her neck and under her eyes. She says she hopes to thank her rescuer in person very soon.