A 48-year-old Glenn Heights man died on Wednesday after his three-wheel vehicle hydroplaned.

According to accident reports from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the victim is Charles Surgin Gardner.

DPS said it was raining around 6:15 p.m. as Gardner drove west on U.S. Highway 180 in his 2017 Polaris Slingshot.

The vehicle hydroplaned and glided off the southern side of the highway before going through a ditch and a fence.

Gardner, said to be a US Army veteran, was declared dead at the scene.  DPS said he was wearing a seat belt.

No other vehicles were involved in the crash and it doesn’t appear that anyone else suffered injuries.

The investigation into the fatal crash will continue and there could be additional accident reports in the future.

Hydroplaning occurs when a vehicle’s tire goes through more water than it is able to scatter.

The water pressure at the front of the wheel forces water under the tire and the tire gets separated from the road by a thin layer of water, causing it to lose traction.

The driver loses control over steering and braking.

This phenomenon can occur whenever the road is wet, but the roads are most dangerous in the first ten minutes of light rain.

The mixture of light rain and oil residue makes the road surface very slippery. This can cause vehicles to hydroplane, especially when they are going at more than 35 miles per hour.

As, seen in Wednesday’s accident, hydroplaning can be deadly for drivers. However, other road users can also be in danger.

Disclaimer: The Accident News article you just read includes information obtained from numerous sources. These sources include, but are not limited to, websites and press releases from law enforcement, the county coroner, fire departments, and other news outlets. While we strive to provide readers with the most accurate information, sometimes the information received is not entirely accurate. For complete details, please refer to an official police report.

The articles published contain sensitive subject matter that may be hard to read by some. We understand that losing a loved one is hard and devastating. Accident News’s decision to share the stories is to help others who may be facing the same situations by providing appropriate resources to the general public.

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