50-year old Gilberto Duenas passed away on Wednesday after drowning in a canal near Okeechobee Road after his vehicle was sideswiped by another car.

Duenas, his nephew, Dager Duenas Gonzalez, and his nephew’s wife, Ladys, were all driving southbound on Okeechobee Road in their Toyota when investigators believe that their vehicle was sideswiped near the Florida Turnpike Extension.

Gonzalez and his wife survived.  Duenas was rushed to Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah and was pronounced dead.  According to a firefighter on the rescue team, “The conditions were terrible because it is probably 25-feet deep and the weeds were probably a good 15-feet, so we were obviously tangled in the weeds most of the time.”

Police are still investigating the accident.  Our thoughts and condolences are with the victim’s family.