A car fell into a lake near Florida’s Turnpike and Florida International University’s main campus on Friday, May 27, 2022.
FIU police
Two people were rescued Friday after their van crashed into a retention pond near Florida’s Turnpike and Florida International University’s main campus on Southwest Eighth Street in West Miami-Dade, officials said.
Both were taken to Kendall Regional Hospital in critical condition, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
The crash happened around 11:30 a.m. near the southbound turnpike exit ramp to Southwest Eighth Street (Exit: 25A).
Troopers said the man and woman were traveling south on the turnpike in a blue Toyota van. While taking the right curve of the exit ramp to westbound Southwest Eighth Street, the driver lost control, drove off the road and overturned into the pond, troopers said.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue sent 18 units and at least seven divers to the pond. Crews pulled the two out of the water.
This story was originally published May 27, 2022 at 12:33 PM.
Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow. Support my work with a digital subscription
