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A white Mercedes-Benz SUV was found submerged this morning in a canal in Hialeah, Florida, with no sign of its driver, according to local authorities.
The vehicle was spotted shortly after 7:00 a.m. in the area of West 16th Avenue and 68th Street, just east of the Palmetto Expressway, according to a report by Local 10 News.
The police of Hialeah Gardens notified Hialeah Fire Rescue (HFR) about the submerged vehicle, and the agency immediately dispatched its divers to the scene along with a tow truck.
The divers inspected the interior of the SUV and confirmed that no one was trapped inside, which eased the initial fears of the neighbors in the area.
Nearby residents expressed their concerns to local media, fearing that someone might have been inside the vehicle when it fell into the water.
After the inspection, divers and crane operators worked together to retrieve the Mercedes from the canal and bring it to dry land.
Once the vehicle was recovered, HFR authorities handed over the scene to the police department to continue the investigation into the circumstances surrounding how the car ended up in the water.
The driver's whereabouts remain unknown, and no details have been provided regarding their identity or possible causes of the incident.
Hialeah, the sixth largest city in Florida and home to one of the highest concentrations of Cuban population in the United States, features an extensive network of drainage canals that run through densely populated residential areas, which has historically been the setting for similar accidents.
In September 2019, a woman approximately 70 years old drowned after her car fell into a canal in an apartment complex in the same city.
In January of this year, a body was found floating in a lake in Hialeah, an incident that also sparked speculations about a possible prior police chase.
In November 2018, a concrete mixer fell into a canal in Hialeah Gardens in a dramatic accident that also prompted the mobilization of local emergency services.
The investigation into the submerged Mercedes remains ongoing, and the police have not ruled out any hypotheses regarding how the vehicle ended up in the canal.
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