OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – A 23-year-old man died Friday morning when his vehicle crashed into a pond and overturned in Osceola County, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Troopers responded to the crash around 6:20 a.m. on Waters Edge Drive, south of Blue Bayou Drive, troopers said.
According to the FHP, the man was driving a 2017 Mitsubishi Lancer south on Waters Edge Drive when he veered off the roadway left for an unknown reason, entered the pond and overturned.
The driver, a Kissimmee man, was pronounced dead at the scene.
“This is very, very scary,” neighbor Juanita Briceno said.
Briceno tells News 6 she is worried about the accidents happening involving the pond.
“The problem started probably about 5 to 6 years ago, when we saw an increased number of crashes right on the Waters Edge, this is not the only one,” she said. “It’s horrible knowing that that person probably was looking for help and nobody was able to save that person. It is very, very sad.”
In 2023, missing barber Jose Malave Lebron was found dead inside his submerged car in the same pond. Investigators said that he failed to negotiate a turn, and his car ran off the road after hitting a utility box.
“The speed zone here is 30, and consistently, people are going through here at 45, 50, 65,” Jacklyn Peterson said.
Peterson has been pushing for safety mitigation efforts to reduce speeding in the neighborhood or to prevent cars from ending up in the water.
“I’ve been really instrumental in talking with the Department of Traffic Control and the police department about the issues, about why don’t we have a speed hump? We have no crosswalks,” she explained.
She believes it’s even more concerning given that there is an elementary school nearby, so she believes something needs to be done before more people die.
“There’s the potential of hundreds of kids being out here and the speed, the speed not being, the speed limits not being observed. So I’ve just been I have at least a dozen emails that I’ve sent back and forth saying, please, you have to do something,” Peterson said.
An investigation is ongoing.