Car flips into pond, man killed
A Smithville youth died Saturday morning when the car in which he was a passenger flipped into a pond, leaving him trapped beneath the wreckage.
The victim, Masedonio Aldino Cruz, 20, was found inside the 1995 Ford Escort when the car was pulled from a pond off Highway 55 near Morrison Saturday morning. The driver of the car, a 17-year-old Hispanic juvenile whose name has not been released, was found walking uninjured along the highway after the crash.
The teen told investigators he fell asleep at the wheel as he was traveling eastbound on Highway 55 around 4:45 a.m. The next thing the teen said he recalled was waking up, his head under water. The driver said he looked for his friend but did not see him given the fact there was little to no visibility under the water. The teen said he then got out of the vehicle and began walking down the highway.
A subsequent investigation showed the car had traveled about 100 yards on the shoulder before vaulting over an embankment and overturning in the water. Lawmen found evidence of drinking, leading to charges of underage driving while impaired against the driver.
The teen is also charged with vehicular homicide and driving without a license. He is being held in detention and will face a preliminary hearing Monday in Juvenile Court. Prosecutors have not decided if they will seek to try him as an adult.
The fatal wreck was one of two unrelated wrecks at nearly the exact same location Saturday morning in a place investigators say wrecks rarely happen.
It was the second wreck, happening sometime around 5 a.m., just minutes after the fatal wreck, that prompted lawmen to be dispatched to the area in the first place. Another motorist witnessed the second wreck and reported it to authorities.
The second wreck happened in nearly identical fashion to the earlier fatal wreck when James Kevin Domer of Manchester left the highway in his 1994 Nissan Maxima, topping the same embankment without overturning or hitting the pond. Domer was uninjured and left the scene before authorities arrived. He was taken into custody in Manchester a short time later. In addition to being charged with leaving the scene, Domer was also charged for possession of drug paraphernalia after they found meth lab components lying on the ground near the scene of the crash.
While highly improbable, investigators say the wrecks were unrelated since the cause of the first wreck was a sleeping driver. The second wreck was caused by the driver trying to dodge a deer.