IN THE DOG HOUSE

He was working on the van’s starter when, surprise, suddenly it started. Could this be the end of a beautiful romance?

Bayou Vista is a little town on the mainland just north of Galveston Island where every house is built adjacent to a series of canals.

MAN WORKING ON A VAN GETS RUN OVER BEFORE IT SINKS IN A CANAL
By T.J. Aulds

The Galveston County Daily News
August 27, 2011

BAYOU VISTA — A man making repairs to his girlfriend’s van was run over after the van unexpectedly started and drove off a boat ramp and into a canal Friday afternoon.

The Bayou Vista man survived with a pair of broken ribs, but the van sunk to the bottom of the canal.

David Jameson was working on the starter of his girlfriend’s Ford Econoline van at about 3 p.m. Friday in the 420 block of Pompano, when all of a sudden it started.

“I heard the engine start and then it just started moving,” Jameson said.

The van sped-off down the side of the house and rolled off a boat ramp into the canal.

“I was under the van to the side, but when it started moving I rolled to the center,” Jameson said. The drive train of the van struck Jameson in the chest, leaving a large scratch mark and a pair of broken ribs, EMS personnel told him.

Jameson, however refused to be taken to the hospital and even helped get the van out of the water. He was more worried about his girlfriend’s reaction to the accident.

“I am in the dog house right now,” he said.

It took two tow trucks, and a dive team comprised of a Bayou Vista police officer and Mayor Bobby Rosenquist to pull the van from the water.

It took about two hours to get the van out of the water. The Galveston County Sheriff’s Office Environmental Enforcement Team was also called it to coordinate getting oil and gasoline that leaked from the van cleaned up out of the canal, acting Bayou Vista Police Chief Randy Shannon said.

Shannon said it had been five years since a vehicle found its way into one of the town's canals.