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Published on Sunday, November 7, 2004
in the Florida Times-Union
MELBOURNE, Fla. - An 80-year-old woman was pulled to safety by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper after she accidentally drove into her neighbor's swimming pool.
When Paulina Cacciabue tried to turn her car onto the neighborhood street, a tire lodged in a storm drain. She stepped on the gas instead of her brakes. Her sedan shot into the neighbor's yard Saturday and plunged into the pool.
Lucien Fecteau, who had never met his neighbor, was reading the newspaper and watching television as the car hit a tree stump, mailbox, fence and pool enclosure. He didn't notice anything until he saw state trooper Rodger Carpenter sprinting toward his pool.
"She was just floating there," said Fecteau.
Cacciabue escaped uninjured.
Carpenter, who was loading his truck in front of his home next door, said he watched Cacciabue approach the curve and turned away but realized the car had left the roadway.
Fecteau's pool will be drained and cleaned by environmental officials, a patrol spokesman said.