WEST JEFFERSON — UPDATE @ 6:15 a.m.
A child and an adult have died after being pulled from an SUV that went into an Ohio pond Thursday evening.
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Officers, state troopers, and medics responded at around 6:25 p.m. to the area of U.S. 40 and Park West Drive on reports of a vehicle into a pond, according to West Jefferson Police Brandon Smith.
Upon arrival, three officers and a state trooper began a water rescue to save the people trapped inside.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) said the adult, identified as 27-year-old Kelita Alfred, and a three-year-old were taken to a Columbus hospital where they were pronounced dead, according to our news partner, WBNS-TV, in Columbus.
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Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) Lt. Merrill Thompson told WBNS-TV that witnesses saw a 2016 Jeep Cherokee traveling westbound in the left lane before slowly driving in the right lane, off the road, and into a retention pond.
Three adults and two children were inside the SUV when the crash happened, according to OSHP.
The driver reportedly got out of the vehicle, and a trooper rescued a child before the car sank. Lt. Thompson told WBNS that another person was rescued before the car was fully submerged.
Medics eventually pulled Alfred and the child from the vehicle, but Thompson said it’s unknown when that happened.
OSHP says the other two adults were not hurt, and a five-year-old child was taken to Nationwide Children’s Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The crash remains under investigation.
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