A Ball State student who was driving back to Muncie late Sunday night died in Grant County after his car was pushed off the road by high waters into a flooded field.
Blake A. Taylor, 19, of Kokomo, lost control of his car along State Road 26, near Fairmount, Ind.
The Grant County Sheriff’s Office received a report that a 2002 Pontiac Grand Am was upside down and submerged in water along the rural highway. Two deputies and other emergency responders arrived on the scene.
The two deputies, as well as a Fairmount police officer, waded into the water, approximately four to five feet deep, and attempted to get the victim out of the car by breaking a window. When this failed, the deputies used tow straps tied to their vehicles to pull the car from the water and were able to free the victim.
CPR was performed on the scene and Taylor was transported to Marion General Hospital. Taylor was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The sheriff’s office believes that Taylor was driving east on I-26 when he drove through standing flood waters. The car then slid across the westbound lane when it rolled over into a ditch.
The passenger compartment began filling with water. Deputies believe Taylor was submerged for 10 to 12 minutes. The crash remains under investigation.
The freshman pre-business major left behind a floor of friends and a roommate whom he shared many interests with.
“It was an honor to be his roommate,” said Matt Guell, a freshman political science and history major. “He was just something else. There is no real way to describe him other than a stand up guy.”
The two met during freshmen orientation in the summer and decided to be roommates after that first meeting.
“Picture the most sarcastic person you know and multiply it by five, that’s Blake,” he said. “He’s the type of person that if you needed someone to not necessarily talk to but you needed a pick me up throughout the day, something happened, you just needed a joke, he was the guy to go to.”
Taylor lived in the LaFollette Complex at Ball State in Knotts/Edwards Hall. Freshman Cameron Hall lived on the same floor.
“You could go to him with anything and he would always just hang and talk,” he said. “I don’t think he had a bad bone in his body.”
Kay Bales, the vice president of student affairs at Ball State, issued a statement regarding Taylor’s death.
“On behalf of Ball State University, I extend our deepest sympathies to Blake’s family and friends,” Bales said. “The loss of such a young man is especially saddening. Our thoughts are with his loved ones.”
Taylor was a 2012 graduate of Northwestern High School in Kokomo. Taylor’s baseball coach, Mike Brazel, said that Taylor “was a coach’s delight.”
“He never put himself first,” he said. “You couldn’t have found a better kid. He was the kind of player you loved.”
Brazel said the school was a somber place Monday morning as the news spread.
The coach called a team meeting before school after learning of Taylor’s death from his assistant coach.
“He made an impact here,” Brazel said.
His impact carried onto the Ball State community.
“Blake meant a lot to all of us on this floor. He was like a brother to us as we were a brother to him,” Hall said. “We are a family on this floor and it is just like losing a loved one.”
The loss has been hard on Guell, who formed a strong friendship with Taylor since freshman orientation.
“Everybody at Ball State, the second floor of Knotts/Edwards, especially me will miss him something fierce,” Guell said. “He won’t soon be forgotten.”
