TOMS RIVER: Emergency personnel are working frantically to rescue four people in a vehicle that’s upside down and submerged underwater on Hooper Ave and South Shore Drive. The vehicle contains four occupants.
Update: Two of the three occupants have been rescued.
Update: Third occupant extricated CPR on progress.
Update: Medevac canceled.
Update: Victim is DOA

At approximately 2:25 AM – Police and EMS were dispatched to the intersection of Hooper Avenue and South Shore Drive for a reported motor vehicle accident involving an entrapment. Upon arrival, the vehicle was located in the marsh, flipped over with the occupants trapped inside. The two passengers were uninjured and manage to free themselves but the driver, Paolo Helfers-Lariva, 28 of Toms River, was trapped and submerged in the water. Multiple officers enter the water in an attempt to free the driver. With the assistance of Silverton EMS and Silverton Fire Department, the driver is eventually freed and CPR was immediately initiated. Mr. Helfers-Lariva was transported to Community Medical Center where, after extensive efforts, he was ultimately pronounced. The initial investigation revealed that the vehicle was travelling at a high rate of speed heading south on Hooper Avenue when it lost control and left the roadway and struck a pole before overturning in the marsh. Also assisting on scene was the Ocean County Sheriff’s Department CSI Unit. The accident remains under investigation by Toms River Traffic Safety Officer, Corporal Terry Warren.