PHOTO BY PHYLLIS POEHLMANN A Colorado man and his sister apparently escaped injury in an accident north of Lometa. The driver of a rental van sufffered an apparent seizure Tuesday morning near Lometa, causing the vehicle to go through a fence and into a shallow portion of the Lower Colorado River Authority’s reservoir.

Corporal 5 Jimmy Chesnut of the Texas Department of Public Safety gave the following account.

Shortly before 10:10 a.m., a 15-foot 2006 Ford Budget moving van was southbound on U.S. Highway 183, about 1.5 miles north of Lometa.

William Erick Briceno, 23, of Colorado Springs, Colo., the driver, was en route to Austin. He was accompanied by his sister, Karen Briceno, 24, of Austin. Mr. Briceno was in the process of moving to Austin, Chesnut said, and his sister was assisting him in the relocation.

The driver was in an outside lane when he apparently suffered a seizure and veered to the right. The vehicle went through a fence and traveled some 50 feet from the edge of the water into the reservoir.

The water was about eight inches deep where the vehicle came to rest.

When first responders C.J. Faubion and Mike Sisney arrived at the accident scene, the Bricenos still were in the vehicle. Faubion carried the female passenger out of the rental van, while an unknown law enforcement officer from Austin -- who happened to be driving by -- carried the driver out of the vehicle.

Capital Ambulance transported the Colorado man to Rollins Brook Community Hospital.

The driver had no visible injuries, and his sister was uninjured but accompanied her brother to the Lampasas hospital, Chesnut said.

“Luckily, nobody was really hurt,” he said.

The rental truck sustained “fairly minor bumper damage” after it struck the fence and several posts, Chesnut said.

Lometa Volunteer Fire Department and the Lampasas County Sheriff’s Department assisted at the accident scene.