DONNELLSON, IA. -- UPDATED: Oct. 18 at 7:52 a.m.

The Iowa State Patrol says the driver of a car that ended up in a farm pond in southern Iowa was trying to make a cell phone call just before the accident.

The car driven by 26-year-old Hoyt Reynolds, of Fort Madison, went through a stop sign late on Oct. 11 near Donnellson in Lee County. The car went off the road, became airborne and landed in the pond.

The patrol says in a report that Reynolds escaped the car but became unconscious near the pond. His passenger, 24-year-old Thomas Walljasper, died in the accident.

The patrol says Reynolds went for help early on the morning on Oct. 12. Divers found the car and it was pulled out of the water.

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A Fort Madison man died in an early Wednesday morning accident near Donnelson, Iowa.

Thomas Walljasper was a passenger in a car that failed to stop at a stop sign and ran off the road into a pond near the intersection of Highway 2 and West 78th.

The car landed in a pond and submerged.

The driver got out of the vehicle and called for help.

Divers with the Keokuk Volunteer Emergency Corps found the vehicle and recovered Walljasper's body from the car.


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