He dove into a chilly canal to save his son. Then he sank out of sight

A 9-year-old boy riding with his father Sunday afternoon lost control of his bicycle and tumbled into the California Aqueduct north of San Bernardino.

Osbaldo Rodriguez, 31, of Hesperia, didn’t hesitate, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department told The Riverside Press Enterprise. He dove into the chilly water and rescued his son. But Rodriguez never resurfaced afterward.

A sheriff’s dive team, called at 12:48 p.m., found his body in the canal a short distance away after a four-hour search.

“This man did what any reasonable person would do under these circumstances, he saved his son,” Cindy Bachman, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department, told the publication. “This is a very tragic accident.”

Relatives told KABC they heard Rodriguez calling for help and came to investigate, but by then he’d already gone underwater. His son was not injured.

“It’s very cold, it moves very fast and, again, it’s hard to find anything to grasp onto,” Bachman told the station about the aqueduct, which has been the scene of several recent deaths.

In September, Xanthi Linares, 24, died when her car crashed into the aqueduct shortly after midnight. She was able to call her mother as water filled the vehicle.

“The last words that she was able to say to my mom before she went under completely and was no longer able to speak was ‘I love you,’ ” said Annette Linares, her sister.

And in March, a mother and two of her three children died when their car crashed through a fence into the water, reported The Bakersfield Sun.

This story was originally published February 5, 2018 at 7:31 AM with the headline "He dove into a chilly canal to save his son. Then he sank out of sight."