Former IUPUI Swimmer Rescues Teens after Car Crashes into Lake

One teen died and another is in critical condition on Monday morning after a car carrying four teens crashed into a retention pond in a southeast Indianapolis neighborhood, police say. Former IUPUI swimmer Jared Allen, 25, was among the first officers on the scene and dove in to try and rescue those in the car that was 12 feet underwater and 35 feet from shore.

The other two other passengers, the driver and front-seat passenger, were able to swim safely to shore.

All four teens are students at Franklin Central High School.

The car they were driving in struck a tree and careened into the water on Frye Road. Allen happened to be in the area when the call came out.

“I got my equipment off and went in the water after them,” said Allen in a press conference on Sunday. “I had a rough idea of where the car might be.”

“I’m 6’6″, so I use my height as an advantage. I put my feet down and finally was able to find the top of the car,” Allen said. “After that, I started doing some controlled dives down. I was able to find some openings and started reaching around to see if I could find the kids.”

Allen says he tried opening his eyes, but in the muddy water he couldn’t see anything.

“There was zero visibility, so I didn’t try again after that point; I just felt my way around,” Allen said.

“I just wanted to get out there and get to them. I didn’t know how long they had already been in the water,” he added.

Two teens, 15-year-old Ella Magyar and a 16-year-old boy, were trapped in the car and two teens were able to make it to the bank on their own. All four teens are students at Franklin Central High School.

“I just wanted to get out there and get to them. I didn’t know how long they had already been in the water,” Allen said.

“I’m sorry,” Allen said. “I did and we did everything we could. I wish I had a better outcome than it did. We did everything we could in the moment.”

Allen, in spite of his desire to save all four teens, still received support for his actions to dive in.

“We had some bad press lately as police around the country have, so it feels good to get a little bit of thanks,” Allen said. “It’s what most of us expect of the other officers around us. And it’s what the community expects from us.”

All teens were out of the water within 10 minutes.

In addition to his background as a collegiate swimmer, Allen says that he received water rescue training at the police academy.

Allen finished his collegiate career at IUPUI in 2017, where he graduated as the school record holder in the 100 free. His record of 44.48 still stands, and he also ranks 2nd in program history in the 50 free.

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SWIMFAN5
3 years ago

What an effort. Thank you, Jared, for your service. You made a difference! Prayers to everyone involved.

Mike Anderson
Reply to  SWIMFAN5
3 years ago

Isn’t that SwimSwam contribuor and Lakeside coach, Tony Carroll second from left?

Hank Monroe
3 years ago

comment image
In honor of Jared and his fellow officers.

Benedict Arnold Schwarzenegger
Reply to  Hank Monroe
3 years ago

Hank, it’s very disheartening to see you deface the American flag like so. I hope you will learn more respect for our country and it’s symbol in the future.

IU Swammer
Reply to  Benedict Arnold Schwarzenegger
3 years ago

Well said, Benedict.

PARTICIPANT RIBBON
Reply to  Hank Monroe
3 years ago

Have to hand it to Hank for throwing that out there knowing we would have a divide on it. I’m sure the two in the peanut gallery on this post would be OK with protesters/rioters burning a flag, but somebody trying to lump patriotism in with a public servant like a policeman or fireman is just a bit too much to handle.

eagleswim
Reply to  Hank Monroe
3 years ago

I like this flag because the percentage of stripes below the blue line is roughly equal to the percentage of police households that experience domestic abuse. It’s a great reminder for all of us!

The more you know!

Brian M
3 years ago

Pay attention kiddies….this will be a lesson in modern journalism. As of now, this story has been picked up by ZERO national “news” outlets. That I can see, there are exactly three websites that have this story. Two are local, and one is SwimSwam. If this officer had done anything wrong, it would have already been out like wildfire. But since this shines a positive light on law enforcement, I would bet good money that it will be buried. Shouldn’t a heroic effort like this be highlighted? Kinda makes you wonder about the true intent of journalists today huh? I have seen bake sales get more coverage that this.

swimapologist
Reply to  Brian M
3 years ago

This is a great story, and I’m glad people are able to read about it here.

But…not every car crash rises to the level of national news. National news covers police officers doing good things all the time: https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/09/us/officer-rescues-choking-infant-trnd/index.html

But if national news were to try and cover everything that happened at a local level…well for starters, it would put the vital local news out of business, and secondarily to that, it would just overwhelm everything.

What you’ve just suggested is actually the risk of papers like the NYT and WaPo getting bought up by big conglomerates – they all want to be national brands and it’s killing local media. They’re sucking… Read more »

Indy editor
Reply to  swimapologist
3 years ago

This story is basically local spot news right now. If the boy that Jared pulled from the car recovers and they meet/reunite, THAT would be a more complete story that would get national attention. At this point, Jared’s efforts, while heroic, have not changed an outcome. YET.

As a local journalist and swim parent, I have to strongly disagree with Brian’s jaded take on “intent.” In 40 years of broadcasting, I’ve never met anybody among hundreds of colleagues who came to work saying, “I’m going to make ——— look good/bad today.” Media “intent” is a fallacy.

Thank you, SWIMAPOLOGIST for pointing out what I see every day – a cop doing the job. Their thankless duties result in bad… Read more »

Benedict Arnold Schwarzenegger
Reply to  Brian M
3 years ago

Brian M: I agree. Police deserve a commendation article every time they do their job without shooting an unarmed person. I, too, feel that police get unfairly singled over the one or 1200 times a year they shoot and kill someone. The police officers I know are good, fragile people who shouldn’t be subjected to criticism over bad things they’ve done or over a decades-long culture in their profession that regularly kills innocent people.

If we know one thing about police, it’s that being held accountable for their actions makes them really sad and that’s why they’ve operated without accountability and transparency for so long. We should think of their fragile egos when we ask questions about why they shot… Read more »

Swimmer A
Reply to  Brian M
3 years ago

“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.” – George Orwell

eagleswim
Reply to  Brian M
3 years ago

yes, it’s a bigger deal when someone negligently does their job and murders a person than it is when someone does their job correctly.

Doconc
3 years ago

Great job officer Allen! Community is proud of you!!

Eddie Morra
3 years ago

Amazing what they did, they tried all they could. I hope this opens up some eyes regarding the fact that we NEED the police. We don’t fight racism by harassing a whole category.

Swimmer A
Reply to  Eddie Morra
3 years ago

I don’t think anyone is suggesting we do not have a police force. Even with the push to defund the police, or abolish the police as the city counsel in Minneapolis recently voted to do, the idea is to change the roll of policing and allocate resources from department budgets back into the community.

Accountability is biggest issue for police in America right now. Black people have been targeted, harassed, and murdered by police officers without consequence because they are protected. This is the reason we are mad, and quite frankly everyone should be mad about this and we should work together to make major systematic changes.

Anonymoose
Reply to  Swimmer A
3 years ago

No people are suggesting that

swimapologist
Reply to  Anonymoose
3 years ago

Anonymoose is right. From what I’ve seen, it was originally a very fringe idea, but has been picking up steam. As far as I can tell, the “abolish police” movement has been picking up steam just as a way for people to show they’re woker than “the white people trying to explain that defund doesn’t mean abolish” types.

That being said, in this scenario, the idea behind reducing the role of police is this: you would reallocate funding to have, say, a larger fire department that would allow the fire department to have a greater ‘in the community’ presence and allow them to respond to these sort of things. It’s great that the police were there and were trained, but… Read more »

Swimmer A
Reply to  swimapologist
3 years ago

Yea I think that’s a pretty fair example. I agree, the “abolish police” movement is a bit more fringe than the “defund the movement,” but the idea is largely similar. Tasks that police officers regularly handle like accidents, dealing with the mentally ill, domestic abuse issues, animal control even, some of these things could be better handled with other services like fire departments, social workers, counselors, animal control, etc.

swimapologist
Reply to  Swimmer A
3 years ago

I can get behind reducing funding and using it in better ways. As you say, a lot of what we expect police to be trained in now doesn’t make sense. It’s too much.

But, if there’s a domestic abuse situation, to me, you need a cop AND a counselor to show up.

If you abolish police entirely, you’re going to wind up in a situation where you’ve just replaced them with some other force that is called something different, maybe managed differently, but…eventually, if you have someone walk into a Walmart distribution center and start unloading a AR-47 into the place, someone with a gun is going to show up. So, completely “abolishing police” is, at best, semantics, and at… Read more »

Corn Pop
Reply to  Swimmer A
3 years ago

Every cop hates being called out t o Domestic Violence or mental illness or to deal with the drug & alcohol intoxicated . Someone else can do it . I also think female social workers who proportionally represent the ethnic profile are best suited to submerged car rescues in muddy waters at 11pm .

Rookie
Reply to  Swimmer A
3 years ago

I’m so old I actually remember what an absolute mess Times Square was during the 70’s and 80’s, and how we tried to fix it (to no avail) with massive welfare spending and social service programs. But, if you think things will be different this time, by all means have at it. Recent headlines suggest otherwise as police withdraw their presence. I’m just glad Officer Allen answered the call rather than replying, “not my job.”

eagleswim
Reply to  Eddie Morra
3 years ago

I think the idea is that the person saving these people didn’t need to be a police officer, per se. There could be a re-imagined group of people who patrol and respond similarly to events like this that do not also need to be carrying deadly weapons on them.

The idea is that when agents of the state are walking around heavily armed, you get the hammer-nail problem. (“when you’re a hammer, every problem looks like a nail”). That’s not to say we don’t need armed agents of the state at all, they just should be less ubiquitous. After all, some problems really are nails.

Guerra
3 years ago

Wow! What a terrible tragedy. Deepest condolences to Emma’s family and thank you to Jared for his service and bravery.

Proudswimmer
3 years ago

Thank you for your efforts. That’s all anyone asks

Irish Ringer
3 years ago

Sorry to hear about the tragic accident and impressive the presence of mind Jared had during that moment. You figure its 11:00PM and in muddy water, so options of a rescue were limited.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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