A Five Towns condo resident jumps into a shallow pond to aid the unconscious driver of an overturned riding mower.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published April 2, 2004
LEALMAN - Kevin Close was reading his newspaper and drinking his coffee Thursday morning when he heard the roar of the riding lawn mower's engine stop.
He looked up from his paper and down from his second-floor porch: The half-ton mower, with a rider on board, was rolling backward down a slope. It was heading straight for a pond.
The mower hit the edge of the pond and flipped, sending the man onboard into the shallow water and the giant machine on top of him.
Close, a 62-year-old snowbird from Illinois, watched and waited for the rider to emerge from the water. But he never did.
The only thing sticking up above the water was the mower's bottom, including its wheels and blades. Close realized the operator had been trapped below the surface, pinned to the pond floor and unable to breathe.
"I expected him to come up and he never came up," Close recalled Thursday afternoon.
Close, barefoot, took off running while his wife dialed 911 from their condo at Five Towns, 7951 58th Ave. N. in Lealman. Close had to run about 500 feet around the pond to get to the mower.
Close, who considers himself to be in above-average shape, arrived in less than a minute. By this time, several other residents of the 55-and-over complex also had arrived. They tugged at the machine from near the shore but to no avail.
Close jumped in. The water was cold, the muddy bottom pulled at his feet.
He felt for the mower operator and found he was motionless and unconscious under the water. He tried to pull the man out, but he was wedged in tight.
Close put his shoulder against the mower and tried to lift it, but it wouldn't budge. He tried again and again, but the mower was too heavy. He believes he was in the stomach-deep water for a minute or more as he struggled with the machine.
"I just couldn't do it myself," he said.
By this time, a number of other people had run to the pond. One was a younger man who Close believes may work for the complex. He jumped in next to Close, who moved down the mower's body. Together they lifted as a number of other men on the bank also tugged at the mower's bottom.
The mower finally shifted. Close let go, grabbed the man under the water and pulled him out. Close dragged him to the bank, where others hoisted the stricken man ashore.
Another bystander began CPR. Close thinks he blew one, maybe two, breaths into the mower operator before the man started to breathe. He spit up water and coughed, then appeared to slip back into unconsciousness.
But after about a minute, he came to again. He tried to sit up and began thrashing around. Paramedics arrived quickly and took the man, John Benner Relayze, 34, of Largo, to St. Petersburg General Hospital. He was listed in stable condition in the intensive-care unit Thursday evening.
Relayze was believed to be under water for two to five minutes, witnesses said.
Relayze was working for Phillips Environmental Services Inc., a Clearwater landscaping company. He has worked there about a year, said Chris Phillips, the company's president.
Phillips said the mower, which weighs about 1,000 pounds, is small compared to some commercial mowers, but is much larger than standard riding lawn mowers.
Phillips said the mower has a safety switch that cuts power if the machine gets at a certain angle. Witnesses told Pinellas sheriff's deputies that Relayze was cutting the grass on a steep bank when the mower shut off and started back-pedaling.
"We're all still trying to figure out what happened," Phillips said.
As for Relayze, Phillips said he was told he's going to be okay.
"What I've heard is he's doing just fine and he'll probably be at work on Monday," Phillips said.
That was good news to Close.
"He was in the water about five minutes before we got him out," he said. "The water was cold. I just hope everything is going to be okay."
Close said he and Relayze actually spoke that morning not long before the accident. Close recently had planted some new grass and had asked Relayze to not cut it too short. Close said Relayze was friendly and nice.
On Thursday evening, Close, a veteran of two back surgeries, felt his bones creak and moan. All the items in his wallet lay drying on his kitchen table. His cell phone, which he was carrying during the rescue, was kaput.
But Close said he felt great.
"My back right now, let me tell you," he chuckled. "I'm not supposed to be doing that type of lifting, but I didn't think about that. I knew it was a heavy sucker. I'm just tickled pink that he's alive and functioning more than anything."
