A D.C. police officer and two construction workers rescued a driver whose SUV plunged into the Anacostia River Thursday afternoon.

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Seventh District MPD officer Kevin Naus saw the vehicle, believed to be a Jeep Cherokee, enter the water near the South Capitol Street Bridge about 1:30 p.m.

Two Corman Marine construction workers, who were on a lunch break nearby, saw the vehicle floating in the river.

"The current was moving pretty quickly and spun the SUV around and I said, 'Pat, there's somebody in that car," said William Richardson, one of the two construction workers. He and Patrick McGeady jumped into a small boat and headed out to the SUV.

"When we got there, I took an oar and busted out the back window and a whole bunch of air came out and a whole bunch of stuff in the vehicle came out," Richardson recalled.

Then the vehicle started sinking. "When it went down, I, in my mind, was thinking, We're too late. We just saw someone die," McGeady recalled.

The workers spotted Officer Naus along the shore and boated over to him.

"As soon as they pulled back on shore," Naus recalled, "the female victim popped her head out of the water. I jumped in the boat with them, we drove over to where she was at. She started sinking down, I reached over and grabbed her and myself and the citizens on the boat pulled her onto the boat."

The three men brought the woman back to shore, where DC Fire and EMS first responders treated her.The woman was conscious but very confused.

"She just kept asking what was going on, she didn't know what was going on," Naus recalled.

The woman was taken to a hospital in stable condition. She told first responders she was alone in vehicle. Investigators believe they have accounted for all her family members that could have been with her, police said.

Divers searched the river for the vehicle but couldn't locate it. They plan to return with sonar to search again.