Three teenagers trapped in a horrific crash met their end not by impact, but by the unbelievable place where they landed

Three teenagers in southern France met a truly unimaginable end after a car crash that trapped them upside down inside a private swimming pool, as per the BBC. It wasn’t the impact of the accident that killed the victims, aged 14, 15, and 19. They tragically drowned after the vehicle skidded off the road, crashed through a wall, and landed upside down in the icy water.

Public prosecutor Abdelkrim Grini described the incident as “truly the height of horror.” He emphasized that the situation left the occupants with absolutely no hope of survival. The car was similar in size to the pool itself, and with the vehicle flipped over, the teens couldn’t open the doors to escape the water. The prosecutor stated, “It wasn’t the impact of the accident that killed them. They found themselves upside down in icy water, unable to get out. They had no chance.”

The unbelievable series of circumstances that led to this tragedy happened in the town of Alès during the early hours of a night of heavy rain, according to the prosecutor. The car first smashed through a low-level garden wall before flipping completely over. It landed in the private pool “with all four wheels in the air.” The pool was about 1.5 meters (or about 5 feet) deep, which was more than enough to completely submerge the vehicle that had landed upside down, creating a terrifying and inescapable trap.

The fact that they’d be saved if the pool were just a bit bigger makes it far more tragic

French reports indicate that canisters of nitrous oxide were found inside the vehicle. This substance is often used recreationally because it can cause people to feel dizzy. While the investigation into the cause of death is still open, the presence of the gas certainly suggests impaired judgment could have been a factor. An unconfirmed report also suggests the youngest victim, the 14-year-old, was actually the one driving the car when the accident occurred, which will remind you of the recent Alabama crash.

Unfortunately, the alarm wasn’t raised right away. Several hours passed before the vehicle was discovered. Firefighters were called to the scene later that morning to begin the difficult recovery process. Video footage from the scene showed the pool next to the collapsed wall, and a mangled car had to be pulled out of the water and loaded onto a fire truck.

The three victims’ bodies have been transported to the forensic institute in Nîmes for post-mortem examinations. It’s an incredibly tragic situation, very similar to what happened to the Colombian ‘Bikergirl,’ defined by an almost impossible confluence of terrible events that saw a simple skid turn into a death trap because of where the car happened to land.