CABARRUS COUNTY, N.C. — A man drowned in flood waters after he drove around barricades in Cabarrus County Thursday afternoon, deputies said.
Officials said they got a call around 3:13 p.m. that a car was stuck off Miami Church and Barrier-Georgeville roads.
When they got to the scene, deputies found the car trapped in the Dutch-Buffalo Creek that had been flooded due to weather. Officers said the car was floating downstream from the road.
Due to weather conditions at the time, crews were unable to pull the car from the water before it was completely submerged.
A few hours later, crews recovered the body of the driver, Roger Armistead.
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Channel 9 spoke to a man who said he was driving his Jeep near the area when he saw Armistead stuck.
“I saw him [turning] like he run off the road and he was trying to get back on the road and I think right here is where he went off the road,” Andy McManus said.
McManus said he immediately stopped and tried to use a cable on his Jeep to pull the man’s car out.
“I had my winch right here and his car was right here and I couldn’t get to it. My winch was going into the water and back out. I couldn’t get to him,” he said.
McManus said that was when firefighters got to the scene and told him to move his Jeep so that they could get to the man.
McManus said he left the scene and heard days later that the driver died.
He said he wondered what happened after he left and if there was more he could have done.
“Whenever I was here at 3:19 and leaving. They finally recover him at 5:20, 5:30 or something, way down there,” he said.
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No one else was in the car, authorities said.
After investigating, deputies said Armistead went around DOT barricades that said the road was closed.
No other details have been released at this time.