Witnesses to a crash have recalled how they assisted passengers, including children, from a car that crashed through a wall on Harbour Road and ended up in the ocean.

Darren Mills, an area resident, said he was the first on the scene in Warwick on Saturday afternoon.

The Bermuda Police Service said the crash occurred near the junction of Belmont Road but have not confirmed the number of passengers involved, only that they have all been “accounted for”.

Mr Mills said he jumped into the water to help, while Nijah Dyer, who was driving past at the time, said she stopped and pulled three children out of the car from a dock. Ms Dyer said others helped to get the driver, a woman, to safety.

Police said the incident happened at about 1pm, leading to traffic diversions in the area that lasted approximately five hours.

David LaHuta, another resident of the area, said a combination of poor road conditions and careless driving made the spot hazardous.

Mr Mills said he was gracious to be in a position to help others get the passengers to safety.

“I’m just very blessed ... that I could help them out of the water and make sure everything was good,” he said.

Mr Mills, who works as a plumber, said he was at home on a phone call when he heard a loud “bang” at the roadside.

He told The Royal Gazette: “I quickly ran outside and I saw the wall was broken, and the vehicle was in the water.

“I flagged down a lady to call 911 and then I went into the ocean.

“There was another lady and a gentleman who came down as well, and they pulled the kids out of the car.”

According to Mr Mills, the car had been trapped right-side-up on several underwater rocks.

He said he swam from a nearby dock to the car and tried to get the passengers out of the vehicle, thinking that the best way to help would be to get the children to nearby steps.

Mr Mills said: “The thing that went through my mind was, ‘You can’t waste time here, there are people in this vehicle and they’re shouting out of the window that they can’t swim’.”

Mr Mills said he was a recreational swimmer and a surfer.

He added that he was lucky the tide was low and that the car was in a position of little resistance from the waves.

Mr Mills said: “It was very shallow where the vehicle went down.”

He added that the situation could have been much more serious had it been in deep water, but the passengers were able to escape the incident “shaken but mostly uninjured”.

Ms Dyer said that the car had drifted towards the dock, enabling her to pull three children, two girls and one boy, out of the vehicle.

She said a female driver was pulled out of the vehicle by two men.

Mr Mills said: “At the end of the day, it was the people of the community who came together, the community, the police and everybody who helped with the rescue.”

Police confirmed that all passengers were accounted for and that they had been transported to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

The BPS have been asked for further details of the incident.

Mr LaHuta applauded Mr Mills’s actions, adding: “Had the tide been higher, had the water been deeper, this group would have perished.

“Darren Mills is a hero, full stop.”

Mr LaHuta said the incident reflected the road’s dangerous conditions, which he added were compounded when people drove carelessly.

The 48-year-old added that the section of road could benefit from rumble strips to force motorists to slow down.

He said: “Rumble strips would help slow down the flow of traffic here.

“I’ve seen it in front of St Mark’s Church in Devonshire. I’ve seen it on the stretch of road by the hospital. Rumble strips work.”

Mr LaHuta said that he lived on Harbour Road in front of a bend on which people drove “way too fast”.

He explained that the road had several blind corners, one being at the end of a stretch of road near his house.

Mr LaHuta said: “Every time I pull out of my driveway, I feel like I can get T-boned by a car.”

He said that speeding and dangerous driving in Bermuda were a wider problem but doing so on this stretch of road was significantly more dangerous.

He said there used to be a slow warning sign painted on the road but it had worn away over time.

Mr LaHuta said: “This is maybe the fourth accident in four months. I don’t know how many cars have gone over the wall over the past year, but enough is enough.”

A crash took place on Harbour Road near the old Lower Ferry terminal in Paget on September 4.

The incident led to a destroyed a telephone pole and a massive traffic jam.

It was followed by a two-vehicle collision on September 12 that required extensive road repairs.