Miami drivers strike again. Late Thursday evening a silver Nissan convertible with Florida license plate was seen lying upside down on top of rocks lining a canal connected to Lake Osceola and partially submerged in the water behind the University Center.
Vice President for Student Affairs Patricia Whitely confirmed the driver was a University of Miami student and that he is OK. No other injuries were reported, despite the car rushing through a sidewalk to get to the canal.
“It’s very, very lucky for the university and for that student, obviously, because he came over and people were walking and the car flipped into the lake,” Whitely said.
Around 8:30 p.m., University of Miami Police Department and Coral Gables Police responded to the call. It was not immediately clear if there was a passenger in the car after the driver was pulled out. Officers on the scene said there were no injuries and a preliminary search had been done to ensure there were no passengers in the vehicle.
Whitely and UMPD officers could not confirm the student’s identity, but officers said the incident was caused by his trying to cut another driver off to enter a parking space.
The car was pulled out of the water around 10:15 p.m. Police divers began the process of getting the car out shortly before 10 p.m. As the crane pulled the convertible out of the canal and over the same parking spots the driver had been trying to nab just hours earlier, water poured out from the trunk.
Correction, 10:52 p.m., April 5, 2018: This article previously stated that the car was a Mazda convertible. It has been updated to reflect that it was a Nissan.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Isabella Cueto, Amanda Herrera, Tommy Fletcher and Hunter Crenian contributed to reporting.