NORTH LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - An elderly South Florida homeowner sprang into action to help the people trapped inside an SUV that took a dangerous dive into his swimming pool.
Speaking with 7News on Friday, William Marts said he heard a loud noise while inside his home near Southgate Boulevard and Southwest 71st Avenue, Friday afternoon.
“We heard this tremendous crack. I thought the lightning had struck beside the house,” he said. “I went up to look, and it looked like a tidal wave right across my pool.”
Behind that tidal wave, the homeowner said, came a silver Ford Explorer into his pool.
“I went, ‘Holy jeez!'” he said.
Marts and his family told 7News that the driver of the SUV was heading northbound on Rock Island Road when he came right between a shed and a light post, smashed into a wooden fence and splashed right into their pool.
Marts said he jumped into the pool to first check on the driver of the SUV.
“And he was breathing. He was drooling, but at least he was breathing,” he said. “Then I noticed there was a little girl in the back of the car.”
Moments later, Marts said, an off-duty Broward Sheriff’s Office detective stopped to help.
“She was on her way home. She hopped in the water with me; she was tremendous,” he said.
Marts said he and the BSO detective broke the window of the Explorer and got the driver and the girl out.
Units with BSO, Margate Police, Margate Fire Rescue and North Lauderdale Fire Rescue responded to the home shortly after.
Paramedics transported the occupants of the Explorer to the hospital for treatment. Authorities said they are expected to be OK.
In a matter of hours, dive teams hooked up the SUV in Marts’ pool, which is only four feet deep, then lifted it up and over, and towed it away.
As for Marts, he also took a trip to the hospital.
I’m 76. It was a little much, and my heart’s going, ‘bla, bla, bla, bla, bla,'” he said.
Marts said he had a high blood pressure spell, but he’s physically OK now.
Mentally, the homeowner said, he needs to see something done to protect the corner he lives on.
Marts said the cars on the intersection of Rock Island Road and South Gate Boulevard have had too many close calls with his home.
“We have an accident every weekend here. They’ve gone through my fence seven times,” he said.
Marts, his wife, his granddaughter and his daughter, Kim Chamberlain, said they are sick of the cars crashing through their property. Now they’re in need of something more to be done.
“We’ve been asking Margate for years for a concrete fence with some rebar in there to stop,” said Chamberlain.
“Yeah, we need something besides wooden fences to stop that,” said Marts.
Other neighbors who spoke with 7News said they have also had too many close calls. Now they’re hoping, with this Explorer ending up in Marts’ pool, that the city will do something about it.
Copyright 2026 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.