Man Hits Hydrant With Car. He Was Dead Minutes Later

A Florida man drowned when he crashed into a fire hydrant and was pulled into a hole under his car by the resulting flood of water, WESH reports. It was his 89th birthday. According to News 13, Robert Dreyer hit the hydrant in Viera around 10am Wednesday. He got out of his car, seemingly unhurt, but witnesses say the ground gave way and opened up a 5-foot-deep hole into which he fell. The hole was possibly made by the force of the crash and resulting water pressure. "The force of the water created an air pocket and sucked him down into the hole where he was under water for some period of time," Lt. Channing Taylor of the Florida Highway Patrol says.

Witnesses attempted to pull Dreyer from the hole, Florida Today reports, but the water pressure was too great to immediately free him. "It was pushing me out of the hole, and I weigh 220 pounds," says one. They did eventually pull Dreyer out, but they estimate he was under water for three or four minutes. Dreyer was pronounced dead at the hospital, and an investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol is ongoing. (A freak accident at an auto show also proved fatal.)