A squad of police snipers was called in to give cover for a few rescue crews working in an alligator-infested pond in the wake of a car crash that took place in Florida over this past weekend.
The rescue divers were sent into the scene of the accident Friday afternoon in the wake of a driver swerving off the road and landing in a retention pond. Police rescue divers were called for in order to help the driver and the other passengers of the vehicle after it began sinking into the muck. The driver and his passenger were pulled out of the water successfully by the dive teams.
“The vehicle lost control, overturned, driving off of the roadway into the pond,” stated Florida Highway Patrol Lieutenant Alex Camacho to local news outlets following the rescue operation. “Dive teams from fire rescue and Miami-Dade Police did their search and rescue, and were able to rescue an adult female and adult male inside of the vehicle at the time.”
As reported by WSVN Miami, the accident took place out on the Florida Turnpike late Friday afternoon. The driver of a midsized blue Toyota minivan was headed southbound along the Turnpike and attempted to take the exit onto Southwest Eighth Street into Miami proper when he failed to maintain control of the car while going around the right curve of the exit ramp. The minivan reportedly flipped and slid down into the retention pond.
Released newsreel footage of the intense rescue highlighted at least one police officer posted on the bank of the retention pond in a prone position while taking aim down the sights of a rifle towards the pong itself. Other photos shown in the report from WSVN highlight other officers sporting rifles spaced around the banks of the pond along with at least one visible alligator swimming around in the pond poking its head above water. “They’re advising the vehicle is sinking,” reported a dispatcher to the gathered officers.
Groups of divers were successfully able to get to and rescue the pair of people inside the sinking vehicle. video from WSVN showed the crews recusing one of the occupants out of the murky water to safety. Crews were eventually able to safely secure both people out of the car and administered CPR to one of the rescued people, an elderly woman. Both of the rescued occupants were taken to a local hospital once they were extracted from the pond. Preliminary reports seemed to indicate that there had been a child on board the vehicle at the time due to the presence of a child’s car seat, but it was later confirmed that there had been no child at the time. Crews were also able to successfully remove the minivan from the water and haul it away from the scene.
The victims were later identified by the New York Post as Nieves Matos, 80, and her son Mario “Merme” Laza, 56. Unfortunately, Laza was pronounced dead late Friday night.