Man who died helping mother, daughter from San Joaquin River identified
By Web Staff
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VERNALIS, California (KCRA) — San Joaquin County officials identified the man who disappeared while helping rescue a mother and her 5-year-old daughter from a river as 41-year-old Eddie Gerardo Cervantes Lora of Manteca.
The woman was driving a GMC northbound on Airport Way south of the San Joaquin River Bridge on Tuesday just before 1:30 p.m. when, for unknown reasons, she steered the SUV to the right down an embankment and hit a tree, releases from both the city of Tracy and the California Highway Patrol Tracy division said. The car then went into the river.
The driver stood near the vehicle’s rear hatch as it started to submerge, CHP said.
Several bystanders first worked to rescue the child, who was being held in the woman’s arms, officials with the San Joaquin County Fire Authority said on Wednesday. The woman then disappeared in the water. The bystanders proceeded to rescue the woman, though she lost consciousness. Officials with the South San Joaquin County Fire Authority and Manteca District Ambulance were able to revive her and took her and the child to a hospital.
But one of the people who had been searching for the woman did not return to the surface, officials said.
Family members of the missing person told KCRA 3 he was in his 40s. The San Joaquin County Office of the Medical Examiner confirmed the man as Cervantes Lora.
“They put their lives ahead of somebody else’s. It’s a terrible tragedy, condolences to the good Samaritan’s family and … we wish them nothing but the best,” said Nelson Zelaya, a spokesperson for the CHP Tracy division.
Dive crews searched for him on Tuesday and again Wednesday morning before finding the body.
Investigators continue piecing together how the tragedy happened and described conditions that they say may have come into play.
“His immediate response to jump in to help another shows the kind of person that I assume that he was, and we’re just very sorry today,” said Heather Brent, a spokesperson for the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office.
CHP said on Wednesday that the driver who was rescued remains in the intensive care unit.
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