Driver Dead After Car Slips Into Broward Canal
WEST BROWARD (CBS4) - A driver rescued from a west Broward canal after his car reversed into it has died.
Passenger Michael Stone, 17, of Pembroke Pines survived while the driver was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The Broward Sheriff's Office said a man was driving on a dirt road early Friday near Mack's Fish Camp on Krome Avenue when his car ran into a ditch. A call for help brought a friend, who drove in another car- a silver Hyundai- with the driver to Mac's Fish Camp in an effort to get help.
The owner of Mack's Fish Camp, Keith Jones, said he awoke at 4 a.m. to see two men outside of the fish camp. The men asked for help because their other car was stuck in a canal down the road. As the men backed the silver Hyundai out if the business, they ended up in a nearby canal themselves.
"I walk outside and there's this car backing up fast, how fast I can't say, but it was fast," says Jones.
Jones jumped in to help pull one man out, but the driver was underwater for several minutes.
"I could see movement in the water. One kid spoke and said help, I'm drowning," said Jones. "I jumped in and dragged him to shore."
The man trapped underwater was taken by air-rescue to the hospital, where he later died.
Jones later learned that the men had stolen a computer and were attempting to take money out of the cash register before Jones approached them.
"There was a second car in the ditch so that was true, but they were down here up to no good. They were here to ask for help and they helped themselves to whatever they could get," says Jones.
Police also later learned that the black Hyundai the men were traveling in was stolen.
