ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — An out of control car veered off Alafaya Trail and crashed upside-down into a pond Tuesday afternoon. Crews had to flip the car over to try to rescue the driver.
The woman, identified Tuesday night as Vera Duncan, somehow lost control more than 500 feet away from the pond. A group of emergency responders showed up, jumped in the water and tried to save her life, but she didn't survive.
The woman's car ended up in the small body of water off of Alafaya Trail just south of Curry Ford Road (see map). Somehow, the 72-year-old victim lost control, drove up the sidewalk, plowed over some trees and a chain link fence and then ended up upside down in the water.
The crash happened around 3:00pm.
"She was seat belted in and that was holding her in place," said Daniel Jones, FHP.
When rescue crews showed up, Duncan was trapped in the car with her head underwater; she was unconscious. Four Orange County deputies, one Florida Highway Patrol trooper and two firefighters jumped in and flipped the car over.
Orange County Deputy Joe Farias-Rios was one of the first in the water.
"We managed to turn the vehicle over and managed to get it, it was a white female inside," he said.
"How challenging was it to turn that car over?" WFTV reporter Mark Boyle asked.
"Well, when you're focused and adrenaline is pumping, it wasn't that hard because it was seven of us," he said.
Trooper Jones had to have his hand bandaged because he was cut with glass in the process.
"While I was breaking the window, my hand got cut up in the melee in all of that so, trying to get in there to render aid," he said.
Crash investigators are speaking with eyewitnesses and trying to figure out exactly what caused the 72-year old to lose control of her car.
WFTV
