FORT WORTH — A woman and a 22-month-old girl died Thursday evening after their car smrashed through an iron fence and ended up in a large pond, where it sank as the driver talked to a 911 operator and bystanders frantically tried to free her.
“We’re in the water and I’ve got a 22-month-old baby and I need some help. ... My doors won’t open,” the driver told a Forest Hill 911 dispatcher. “Ma'am, my doors won’t open and I’ve got a baby, and we’re going under water,” the driver said before repeatedly screaming at the would-be rescuers to try to break the glass. The dispatcher calmly tried to get help to the woman even as her situation grew more desperate. But the car sank in the pond.The car “went out a little ways, floated a little and then went under,” Fort Worth fire Capt. Tom Crow said. “They were both under water for several minutes.”The woman and child, who had not been identified late Thursday, were pronounced dead at hospitals, said Capt. Michael Baldwin, a Fort Worth police spokesman.The woman was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital and the child to Cook Children’s Medical Center, he said.The pond is at Amelia Parc, a residential complex with a landmark clock tower near the mixmaster of East and Southeast Loop 820, Interstate 20 and the Mansfield Highway at the border of Fort Worth, Forest Hill and Kennedale.Forest Hill police, the first to arrive, jumped in to try to save the occupants, Crow said. A Fort Worth Fire Department dive team eventually pulled them from the car.Asked about the pond’s depth, Crow said, “It’s deep because the car is still submerged.”Forest Hill Police Chief Dan Dennis said four officers went into the pond. They came out shivering. “This is hard on these guys,” Dennis said. “They’re cold, they’re tired and it’s a heartbreaking set of circumstances. Everybody’s going to be hurting.”Lamorris Debouse, who lives in a neighboring apartment complex, said he watched the efforts.“They brought the mother out and then the baby,” he said. He said another woman remained at the scene talking to police, although her involvement was unclear.“The lady stayed here for the longest — definitely upset,” he said.The car that went into the water had apparently collided with another car on a service road of East Loop 820. The other driver also called 911. “I was just in a car accident,” she told the dispatcher. “A car pulled out in front of me. There’s, like, a lake and they lost control and they’re in the water.“I don’t know what happened. I hit my horn. I was on the access road and she just pulled out in front of me and I did everything I could not to hit her.”The small dark sedan was pulled from the water about 9 p.m.Audio: "They lost control and they're in the water"
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