Vehicle ends up at the bottom of pool of Broward County home
FORT LAUDERDALE -- A 79-year-old grandfather had to be rescued Tuesday afternoon by his relatives after he drove his new Mercedes Benz into the pool of the family's Margate home.
Aerial video from the scene showed images of the screened-in pool where the car ended up following the accident at the house in the 1400 block of NW 62nd Terrace, just off Margate Boulevard.
CBS News Miami's Peter D'Oench spoke with the car's driver, who was identified as Jacques Dieudonne.
"My grandson asked me to move the car," he said. "I tell you I really don't know how this happened. Only God knows. I can't explain."
The accident resulted in a frantic effort to get the man out of the vehicle.
"My son called me and said, 'Grandpa drove his car in to the pool," said Anne Dieudonne through tears while talking about her father and the incident. "I don't know how this happened. I was not there. The car had just been delivered this morning from New York and he was going to send it to Haiti before moving back home there."
The family is now trying to determine what comes next.
"I don't know what is going to happen now or if insurance will cover something like this," Anne Dieudonne said.
Kurtz Methelus, the driver's 25-year-old grandson, said the car brushed him before it landed in the pool.
"My grandfather had just gotten the car at 11 this morning," Methelus said. "I guess he must have mistaken the gas pedal for the brakes and he almost hit me straight on. He would have run me over had I not moved."
Relatives were frantic after the accident.
"I yelled to my auntie, 'He's in the pool! He is in the pool!,'" Methelus said. "'Get up, get up. We have to help grandpa!'"
He said he was too injured to jump in the pool but said his sister and his aunt rescued the driver from the pool and the submerged car.
A spokesman for the Margate Police Department said the agency is aware of what happened and said it was under investigation.
No other injuries were reported during the accident.
