PARKLAND, Fla. – Divers from the Broward Sheriff’s Office and Coral Springs Fire Rescue pulled a body from a canal in Parkland on Monday after a Caterpillar dump truck crashed into the water.
The victim was identified a day later as 24-year-old Jeffrey Seraphin, of Belle Glade.
Tow trucks later pulled out the truck.
The incident occurred shortly after 10:30 a.m. off a dead-end on Loxahatchee Road.
Deputies along with Coral Springs and Parkland Fire Rescue arrived at the excavated piece of land after receiving reports of a vehicle in a canal.
First responders quickly discovered the dump truck in the water, but the driver was nowhere in sight.
“These canals are a lot deeper than you think and they are murky,” Al Wolters, who lives nearby, said.
Coral Springs Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Moser said the driver was the only person inside the truck.
Seraphin’s body was underwater for more than an hour before it was found and removed from the canal.
BSO Traffic Homicide detectives are still investigating the incident.
“It could’ve been that the ground around there was soft too, and it just kind of started sliding and once it started sliding and that was it -- he just couldn’t recover,” Wolters said.
On Tuesday, authorities confirmed that Seraphin was reversing the dump truck toward the man-made canal to dump a load of dirt and mud.
But authorities said he “reversed past the point of safety, and the truck began to slip back into the water.”
According to deputies, Seraphin got out of the truck and tried to swim to shore, but he drowned.
Coral Springs Fire Rescue pronounced him dead at the scene.
BSO Traffic Homicide detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.