Gainesville Letter Carrier Symonette helps save a life

Sinking SUV

Marcus Lady was working in a shop at the Uptown Village apartment complex along Northwest 39th Avenue on Tuesday afternoon when he heard three loud bangs.  As the apartment maintenance man ran toward apartment buildings on Northwest 23rd Drive where the noise was coming from, he saw two cars, yards apart with their sides smashed in. He saw the cause of the crash when he turned toward the nearby retention pond, he said.

In the middle of the pond, halfway sunk, was a dark burgundy SUV. Lady could see a man inside, he said, but he wasn't moving and the vehicle was sinking.  The man inside the car -- later identified as Gerald G. Bacoats, 64 -- had lost consciousness after apparently having some sort of medical episode, Gainesville Police Department officers said, which caused Bacoats to hit two vehicles and then crash into the pond around 2 p.m., GPD spokesman Officer Ben Tobias said.

Lady didn't waste time. He took his cell phone out of his jeans pocket, pulled off his dark brown work boots and dove in. A mailman, later identified as Gainesville Main Post Office Letter Carrier Alan Symonette,  on his route nearby also waded into the pond to help Lady. "I didn't think about the snapping turtles, the snakes or the alligators," Lady said. "I just jumped in."

Lady and the mailman searched, but couldn't find a way inside the vehicle. The doors of the SUV were shut and Bacoats, who apparently lives in Uptown Village, didn't seem to realize his car was brimming with green pond water, Lady said.  Russell Gault heard the crashes too while he sitting in his apartment. He ran out to the retention pond and saw Lady and the mailman trying to get Bacoats out of the SUV.  At first, it looked like they had everything under control, Gault said. But the vehicle with Bacoats inside was sinking quickly and deeper into the pond, so Gault dove in as well.

Gainesville Letter Carrier Alan Symonette

Bacoats' eyes were wide open, but blank and unresponsive, Gault said. Finally, Lady, Gault and the mailman found a way in through the open driver's window, he said.  Other bystanders had joined them and together they pulled Bacoats out of his vehicle and onto the shore. Bacoats was alert and responding by the time they reached shore, even recognizing Lady.

Tobias said officials transported Bacoats to UF Health Shands Hospital with minor injuries. GPD officers called Ultimate Towing, who chained the vehicle and pulled it out. Gallons of water burst out of the SUV, in which the driver's airbag had deployed.

After going home to change, Lady and Gault both came back to the scene. They told the story again to people passing by and each time, they asked, "So, where's the mailman?"  He just left, Lady said, smiling. After they pulled Bacoats to shore, the mailman told them he had a route to run and disappeared down the road.   (As reported in the Gainesville Sun newspaper)