HOUSTON— A driver died after his truck plunged into a retention pond Sunday in the Southway Landing subdivision located at Freehill and Kurland.
Xiomara Reyes heard the accident and described it as a large splash.
“It’s like it was something you don’t hear,” Reyes said. “It was just ‘boom’ like that, but real big.”
Gigi Phillips heard a similar noise.
“I heard something that sounded like a light post, like a pop,” said Phillips. “I ran downstairs and two minutes later, I saw the fire trucks come in.”
Paul Nguyen was headed to church and noticed the truck in the water. He said it was hard to tell if anyone was inside, but he noticed smoke.
“I’m thinking to myself, how in the world did a truck get in the middle of the lake facing this way?” said Nguyen.
He kept driving, but recalled a man in a pair of shorts standing on the bank. Police said that man jumped in and tried to rescue the driver.
“He said he was pulling him out of the water, pulling him to shore,” said HPD spokesperson Jodi Silva. “He either lost control, or the current was too thick or something.”
It would take police hours to piece the story together.
They said they believe the driver was speeding, hit a curb, clipped a tree and landed in the water.
The Houston Police Department’s dive team suited up and found the man’s body within thirty minutes. Not long after, the man’s red Ford Pickup was brought to the surface.
HPD said the pond is deep. A crowd had gathered on the banks of the pond to watch everything unfold.
Nguyen came back and said he was stunned to learn what happened to the driver.
“This is terrible,” said Nguyen. “Things like this don’t click. You just don’t think things like this happen.”
KHOU 11 News saw the good Samaritan but didn’t get a chance to talk to him. The victim’s name hasn’t been released.
