ODESSA, Texas (AP) _ West Texas authorities say five people died after a pickup truck got stuck in a shallow pond and sat with the engine running for several minutes while submerged just above the tailpipe.
Ector County sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Gary Duesler says witnesses smashed a truck window to pull unconscious victims from the truck yesterday.
Duesler says the victims didn’t drown.
He says exhaust would most likely enter the cab of the pickup through air vents once the tailpipe was under water, but he said authorities didn’t want to speculate on the causes of death.
The bodies were sent to the Tarrant County medical examiner for autopsies.
Duesler says the incident near Odessa happened when the victims were apparently “mudding,” where people try to drive vehicles through shallow pools created by heavy rainfall.
Three victims were members of one family from nearby Kermit — 42-year-old Lenin Polanco, 40-year-old Martha Isela Caballero and their 19-year-old daughter, Gladisela Polanco. The other victims were 40-year-old Maurilio Hernandez and 32-year-old Adan V. Saucedo, both family friends from nearby Monahans.
Odessa is about 350 miles west of Dallas.