Residents who live near the 18200 block of Old Richmond Road knew something was wrong early Saturday morning.
"It was either a DPS vehicle or sheriff's vehicle with the lights on. It was probably about 3 o'clock," nearby resident Rick Kuhn said.
The Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office got a 911 call around that time. The caller was out of breath, and the call abruptly ended. When deputies arrived, they found a car submerged in a bayou swollen with flood waters.
"From what it appears from the evidence, it seems like the car veered off the road, went down the embankment, into the bayou," DPS trooper Drew Stoner said.
Sivers pulled out the driver, identified as 21-year-old Syed Shawn Ali, but by then it was too late. Ali was pronounced dead at the scene.
At the scene, you can't see skid marks. It appears the car barreled right into the bayou.
"They had telephone poles along the line here to keep you from going straight into the water," nearby resident Anthony Buford said.
Buford stopped by to look at the scene Saturday morning. He thinks the wooden poles that used to act as barriers could have made a difference.
"I think that probably would have helped stop the car really," Buford said.
"They need to have a little more barricades, especially on the other side too," Kuhn said.
Ali's family says he had just graduated from the University of Houston on Friday.
DPS has taken over the investigation into the crash and is waiting on a toxicology report to determine if alcohol might have been a factor in the crash.
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