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STANFORD – Kentucky Highway 300, just outside of Stanford, was closed down Sunday afternoon as emergency responders worked to pull a submerged vehicle out of a farm pond.

The driver of the vehicle, identified as 40-year-old Nathan Fraley of Lincoln County, was pronounced dead at the scene at about 5:30 p.m. by Lincoln County Coroner Farris Marcum.

Fraley was traveling on Ky. Hwy. 300 in a Chevy pickup truck when he entered a curve and ran off the roadway, the coroner said.

“He went over a very steep embankment and came to rest upside down in a farm pond,” Marcum said.

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office is handling the ongoing investigation, Marcum said. An autopsy and toxicology tests are pending at this time.

“We really don’t know why he ran off the road. There were no markings showing that he applied the brakes. We don’t know if speed was a factor,” Marcum said.

Fraley was the sole occupant of the vehicle.

The property owner noticed a hole in his fence and discovered the vehicle at about 3 p.m. Sunday, according to Marcum.

“What they saw was the back wheels sticking up out of the water,” he said.

The Boyle County Fire Department received a call for mutual aid from the Lincoln County Fire Department and the agencies worked together to remove the vehicle from the water.

Other agencies that assisted were: Danville 911 Center; Boyle County Fire & Rescue Water Rescue 3; Lincoln County EMS; Lincoln County Emergency Management; Kentucky State Police; Kentucky Fish and Wildlife; Lincoln County Coroner’s Office and the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.