Aurora man dies after car crashes into pond during driving lesson, police say

AURORA, Ill. (WLS) -- An Aurora man has died after the car he was riding in crashed into a retention pond Sunday morning.

Aurora police said Dawa Tamang, 48, was pronounced dead at 10:15 p.m. Sunday at Loyola University Medical Center. Investigators believe he was in the passenger seat teaching a 33-year-old relative how to drive at the time of the crash.

Police said it appeared that the driver was attempting to park near the retention pond in the 300-block of Marshall Avenue in Aurora when the vehicle suddenly accelerated. The car went over bushes and into the pond just before 8 a.m., then flipped on its roof, trapping the men for about 10 minutes in four to eight feet of water.

Three Aurora police officers arrived on the scene and righted the car after jumping into the pond. Members of the Aurora Fire Department's dive team were able to extricate the men from the vehicle after cutting the seat belts and pulled the men out of the water with the help of the officers.

The 33-year-old man suffered critical injuries and remains hospitalized in Aurora. Police said there were no outward signs of drug or alcohol use at the scene of the crash.