BEAUMONT — According to the Beaumont Police Department, Vincent Runkle, 62, of Silsbee man was operating Peterbuilt truck tractor pulling a hopper trailer at 3:30 a.m. Friday.

For unknown reasons he left the roadway in the 100 block of East. Cardinal Drive.

The truck tractor traveled across the southbound service road and came to rest in the LNVA canal.

Responding officers jumped in the canal and pulled Runkle from the truck to the bank, where EMS personnel began working on him.

He was taken to CHRISTUS Southeast Texas-St. Elizabeth, where he was pronounced deceased.

An autopsy was ordered and next of kin has been notified.