How a Man’s Fishing Trip Under the Fremont Train Bridge Altered Two Lives Forever

FREMONT, Ohio —

A quiet night of fishing on the Sandusky River quickly turned to tragedy earlier this month.

“I feel like I was directed toward the river that night,” Jon Cooper said.

Cooper was fishing under the Miles Newton Bridge in Fremont on May 18 at the time, something he’s done many times before.

But what happened next was something he could never imagine.

“The train coming into town really started honking its horn real loud and it stayed on it, and I couldn’t quite figure out what was going on in that moment,” he recalled.

Cooper then saw something fall from above and hit the water.

“Moments later, there were a few gentlemen that were there fishing on the other side of the pier that came running around saying that there were bodies in the water.”

He rushed into the river, swimming nearly 40 feet in his waders to help. He eventually came across the bodies of two women.

Police later said they were visiting from Fort Wayne on a family fishing trip when they were hit by a train. 

“They were both face down, not responsive. Almost simultaneously, at that point when I got there, they [other fishermen] pointed that further out that they kept saying, ‘There’s a baby in the water.'”

Cooper swam even further out, finding a 14-month-old girl face down.

“I got to her and threw her up over my left shoulder and began to make my way back with her. About halfway into shore, once I could finally touch again and stand up, I took her head and gave her three really deep breaths over her mouth and her nose because I knew that she was full of river water,” Cooper said.

His quick thinking to jump into the water and start CPR saved her life.

“I’m not currently certified, but I was just there,” Cooper said. “I knew she needed to have air injected into her. It was amazing to see her come to.”

At the time, no one saw the 5-year-old who also landed in the water. Crews pulled her body out of the water the next day.

Cooper said he’s thankful that even just one life was saved that night.

“As a Christian, the toughest question that people ask is, ‘If there’s a God, how does he let horrible things happen?’ And I never, before this incident, was able to answer that, but now I see that good can come out of it,” Cooper said. “Good can come out of this tragedy and she’s going to have an opportunity to do something special with her life.”

Fremont Mayor Danny Sanchez told WTOL 11 the toddler has been moved out of the ICU and is improving. Cooper said he extends his condolences to the family of those involved.