WATCH ABOVE: A man is dead after an early morning crash in the city’s Southeast, his car ended up submerged under four metres of water. As Tracy Nagai reports, police are now trying to piece together the moments leading up to his death.
CALGARY-A man in his 40’s died in hospital after EMS says he was submerged in a drainage pond for about 40 minutes early Saturday morning.
A witness told police the truck had been travelling southbound on Stoney Trail S.E. around 2:00 a.m. when it lost control and hit a body of water just past Glenmore Trail.
The Calgary Fire Department’s Aquatic Rescue Team was called in and divers searched the pond for the truck with the help of the witness.
They found one person inside the truck and pulled the male driver to the shore.
Police are trying to piece together the moments leading up to his death.
“Conditions would have been extremely limiting because of the night time low visibility and also because the bottom gets stirred up upon impact with the vehicle,” Al Magwood from the Calgary Fire Department said.
The crash happened around 2 a.m. Saturday morning.
The victim’s truck was seen driving erratically on Stoney Trail, it clipped its side mirror on a light standard and then drove off the exit ramp on to Glenmore Trail East before plunging into the water.
Luckily, someone called 911.
“It is fortunate there were witnesses that could indicate where the vehicle had entered the water and where the truck might be,” Stuart Brideaux from EMS said.
“All they were able to do was to see the tail lights. They hovered over that location until the divers showed up and at that point the divers entered the water and found the vehicle,” Chief Magwood said.
The man was submerged for about 40 minutes before being pulled from his truck, unresponsive.
Paramedics rushed him to Foothills hospital, where he died.
“Any body of water in Alberta and especially at this time of year in June is a cold water immersion or a cold water drowning, so in this case the patient was also quite hypothermic,’ Brideaux said.
Several hours later, the truck surfaced.
It’s believed the man was heading south of Calgary.
Police say he may have had a pre-existing medical condition, although at this time they’re not ruling anything out.
An autopsy could be completed as early as Monday.
The victim’s name has not been released.
Police continue to investigate whether speed or alcohol were factors.
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