A 12-year-old boy drowned this past weekend after he was trapped in a submerged truck in Clear Creek.
Deputies at the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office responded to the accident at 9 p.m. on Saturday, which occurred off of Exit 232 from westbound Interstate 70. Two women with facial injuries were outside of the truck, while a man ran up the embankment, “screaming for help,” according to police.
Once the preteen was discovered in the vehicle, several people rushed into the water to free him, including deputies, Idaho Springs Police Department officers, Georgetown Police Department officers and one “courageous citizen,” the news release by the sheriff’s office reports.
However, it notes that the boy was stuck between a boulder and the truck, causing difficulties with the rescue. Once the vehicle was lifted, police reached the preteen and tried to resuscitate him. However, a local hospital confirmed his death, according to the sheriff’s office.
The Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office directed further questions on Monday morning to Colorado State Patrol, which didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
“This is so sad. He was a well liked kid in a neighboring community,” Jennifer Giacomini Fanning wrote in a comment under the news release by the sheriff’s office on Facebook. “He will be greatly missed.”
National nonprofit Kids and Car Safety weighed in on the death on Monday, saying, “Vehicle submersions claim the lives of far too many people who could have survived if they had just known what to do and in what order to do it.”