WATCH: Bystanders save woman trapped under flooded southern Arizona bridge

A flooded crossing in Sabino Canyon became the scene of a life threatening rescue Thursday morning, when a 20 year old woman was swept beneath a bridge while trying to move a bicycle across the water. Family members and other bystanders pulled her from the drainage area and performed CPR until she regained consciousness. The incident, captured on video, is now prompting renewed warnings for Tucson area residents to avoid flooded washes, roads and paths, even when the water appears shallow.

The rescue began shortly before 8 a.m. in Sabino Canyon, in the Santa Catalina Mountains northeast of Tucson. According to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, a family of three was attempting to cross the flooded bridge on bicycles when the woman fell. Another account said she was walking her bicycle across the bridge when she lost her footing and was rapidly carried away. In either case, officials said the water trapped her underwater for several minutes before she was recovered.

Video shared by a viewer shows several people rushing to help. The woman was pulled from the water after being carried downstream, and people at the scene began CPR. She eventually regained consciousness. Deputies with the sheriff’s department and crews from the Rural Metro Fire District responded, helped remove her from the drainage area and assisted with the rescue. The woman and one other person were taken to a nearby hospital, where both were reported to be in stable condition.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said the water’s force sent the woman through a tunnel beneath the crossing and expelled her about 100 feet downstream. The incident could easily have ended differently, he said, because a person carried into a tunnel might strike their head or encounter an obstruction. The video illustrates how quickly someone can disappear from view in floodwater, even when rescuers are nearby and trying to reach them.

The danger was not limited to the depth of the water at the bridge. Tucson resident Ray Teller, who said he uses the path five or six times a week, described conditions changing dramatically over a very short distance. At one crossing, he said, the water was only about six inches deep. A 15 second bike ride later, the next crossing had roughly two feet of water over it. Teller also said he was stranded on the path about 10 days earlier after floodwaters rose within seconds, leaving him waiting four hours before he was rescued.

Sheriff’s officials said rescues involving fast moving water at Sabino Canyon are a regular part of monsoon season, with Nanos describing them as a daily occurrence for the agency’s search and rescue team. The canyon rescue was also one of at least three flood related rescues reported around Tucson on Thursday. Around 2:20 a.m., an off duty Department of Public Safety trooper spotted a vehicle stuck in floodwater near Silverbell Road and Streetwater Drive. Tucson Fire Department crews removed the driver using a ladder.

Elsewhere, the Northwest Fire District said an engine crew rescued three people trapped inside a vehicle on a flooded roadway near Sandario Road and Avra Valley Road. Together, the incidents showed that the threat extended beyond recreational crossings in the foothills to roadways across the region. Floodwater can create hazards for people in cars, on bicycles and on foot, while also placing rescuers in dangerous conditions.

The sheriff’s department urged residents never to attempt to cross a flooded wash, regardless of whether they are driving, riding a bicycle or walking. First responders repeated the familiar safety message, “Turn Around, Don’t Drown,” and asked people to use caution rather than assume a crossing is safe because it was passable moments earlier. Nanos said the central lesson from the Sabino Canyon rescue was to avoid making a decision based on the belief that a dangerous outcome will happen to someone else.

For people who spend time in Sabino Canyon or travel roads that cross washes, the rescue is a reminder that conditions can change between one crossing and the next, and that water can move with enough force to carry someone into a tunnel and far downstream. The woman survived because family members, bystanders and emergency crews acted quickly. Officials say the safer choice, however, is to turn back before entering the water.