MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A good Samaritan is recounting the race to rescue two women who lost control of their ATVs in southwest Miami-Dade and ended up in a canal. He and others were able to get one of the victims out alive, but the other died.
Miami-Dade police say the women were riding ATVs on the bank of the water Thursday when they lost control and ended up in the canal, which is located in the area of Southwest 112th Street and 157th Avenue in The Hammocks.
Dennis Padilla said he was home with his 24-year-old son Mikael Angelo when they heard cries for help coming from the canal behind their home.
“Apparently the ATV fell into the water and the current, because the canal’s open right now, it’s got a pretty strong current,” he said. “By the time she started yelling that she couldn’t swim and needed help, we could see her from the kitchen window.”
He said, “We heard somebody yelling, ‘Help. I can’t swim. I can’t swim,’ screaming. And we saw the victim floating. She couldn’t swim, but she was able to float.”
Padilla said he and his son “went into rescue mode immediately.”
“The first thing that came into my mind was ‘we can do this,’” Padilla said. “Just having a canal behind your house is like having a pool. If somebody falls into the canal, you just go and help them out.”
Video shows Mikael Angelo racing towards the water with a ladder. Padilla follows with a life jacket. On the opposite bank, a firefighter plunges into the water to rescue her.
“She kept screaming about her cousin. So we realized that there was a second victim and started looking for her immediately,” Padilla said. “At one point, we saw a helmet floating and thought the victim was under it. My son jumped right in, but nobody was there.”
Both women, police confirmed, were tourists visiting from New York.
“The weather could have played a factor,” Padilla said. “But I’m guessing, as tourists, they weren’t aware of the conditions or how to control the ATVs.”
About thirty minutes later, her body was recovered.
“I think it could be kind of hard for the families when (the surviving victim) goes back home and has to explain that her cousin passed away during their vacation,” Padilla said.
Both Padilla and David Spinetti, who lives a few doors down and witnessed the fire rescue and police response, said it is not uncommon for pets or people to fall into the canal.
Spinetti said someone fell into the canal from an ATV just last month.
Padilla said his dog once slipped into the canal, which is why he has two tall ladders strapped to the exterior wall of his home, aiding in how swiftly he and his son were able to dive in and assist.
Spinetti, who often rides the same dirt path across the canal bank on an ATV, described it as wide enough to ride safely but said conditions yesterday were not ideal.
It had been rainy and windy. Like Padilla, he also wonders if the women, as tourists, perhaps didn’t know how to control or steer the ATVs if it was a new experience for them.
Padilla, a certified rescue diver trained in diving in dark, murky waters, says his son now also wants to become a certified diver after yesterday’s events.
Law enforcement officials confirmed that ATVs are allowed on the path.