By Dianna Cahn
Sun-Sentinel
BOCA RATON, Fla. — A Florida Highway Patrol trooper nearly drowned Monday trying to save a Boca Raton woman who intentionally drove her car into a lake at the Glades Road exit of Florida’s Turnpike, authorities said.
The 56-year-old woman left the exit ramp shortly before 7 a.m., drove behind a barrier and accelerated her vehicle as she headed directly into the water, FHP spokesman Sgt. Jorge Delahoz said. She managed to drive fast enough to launch the vehicle 60 feet from the shoulder into the center of the lake.
Trooper Steven Julien was the first on the scene, Delahoz said. He saw the vehicle sinking with the woman inside and dove in. But the woman had locked the doors and refused to open them, Delahoz said.
An onlooker, Jason Alweiss, 23, grabbed a crowbar and jumped in the water as well. The two broke a window and dragged the woman from the vehicle just as it sank fully.
She struggled, Delahoz said. But Julien and Alweiss managed to pull her to safety. “Obviously she didn’t want to be rescued,” Delahoz said.
Alweiss was treated at the hospital and released. But Julien, an 11-year veteran trooper, ingested a large amount of dirty water and had to be hospitalized with fluid in his lungs, Delahoz said.
Copyright 2008 Sun-Sentinel