An 18-year-old died trying to save his family from a car submerged in water after it plunged off a gravel road and into a canal in Delaware on Oct. 6.
The teen was driving his two younger brothers, his girlfriend, and a cousin to a youth football game around 9:41 a.m. ET on Sunday when their car went into the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, according to KYW.
First responders located a 16-year-old girl on the canal banks in Middletown about a mile west of the William Roth Bridge. She told them the 18-year-old helped her get to shore and then returned to the water to rescue the other three passengers, a news release from the Delaware State Police said.
His body was recovered from the water shortly after rescuers arrived, according to the release.
The police statement said two more passengers, boys ages 12 and 16, were pronounced dead hours later after the car they were riding in was recovered Sunday afternoon.
The final passenger, a 6-year-old boy, wasn’t found and remained unaccounted for late Sunday, according to police.
Authorities said they are investigating how the car ended up in the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal around 9:40 a.m. Sunday. A state police spokesman, Master Cpl. Michael Austin, praised the teen driver at a news conference, saying he had sought to rescue the others.
“He was a hero,” Austin said Sunday afternoon. “He tried to do everything he could to help the remaining passengers in that vehicle.”
The driver worked to free the girl, who first responders later found sitting on the banks of the canal after a bystander had called 911, the Delaware News Journal first reported.
Crews from multiple law enforcement agencies then worked for hours to remove the car from the canal, pulling it out after 5 p.m. in what was described as a multi-agency recovery operation.
The victims were Delaware residents but none were immediately identified pending notification of relatives.
The canal is about 35 feet deep, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
State police said the situation unfolded about a mile west of a State Route 1 bridge in Delaware.
The driver’s body was found in the waters a short time after emergency responders were called and the bodies of the two boys were discovered in the vehicle when it was pulled out of the waters hours later, police said. They added that they continue searching for the missing 6-year-old.
Police, fire, maritime units and a dive team and paramedics all took part in the effort. Authorities said a state police collision reconstruction unit is continuing to investigate how the car went into the canal.
The CNN Wire contributed to this report.
