A woman who was on the way to Sunday Mass with her children said she called 911 to report an erratic driver and followed the car that eventually drove into a retention pond near EverBank Field, killing the man inside.

Greg Thompson, 39, was pulled from the car in the pond on Gator Bowl Boulevard just after 9 a.m. He later died at a hospital.

The woman, who did not want to be identified, said she was driving on Atlantic Boulevard on her way to Assumption Catholic Church with her children in the back seat when she swerved to avoid getting hit by the car.

"I'm deciding, 'Am I late to this service, or do I try and save someone's life?' And I call 911," the woman said.

She said she called police at 9:12 a.m. and started following the man as he got onto Interstate 95. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office 911 dispatcher then transferred her call to a Florida Highway Patrol dispatcher.

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"The guy is swerving everywhere," she said. "I keep thinking he's not going to make it over the Main Street Bridge. He's swerving, hitting the edge of the curb with his tires, and I'm just in a panic with 911."

As the erratic driver struggled to cross the bridge, the woman was transferred again, she said. Her call was sent back to the original dispatcher because the driver was no longer on the interstate.

The woman told the dispatcher that the driver appeared to be drunk, and she said she had a feeling the incident would end badly.

"I'm telling her (the dispatcher), 'He's going to kill someone,'" the woman said. "And my child in the back seat is saying that he's going to kill himself."

The woman said the driver turned onto Bay Street downtown and ran through a red light and right past the Jacksonville police station.

All the while, the woman said she was still on the phone with police and following the driver.

"She's (the dispatcher) basically just telling me she has other calls to take, she has it," the woman said. "And I ask could she please stay on the phone until she gets someone because he's turning, and how are they going to be able to keep up with him? And she says, 'No.' She's put it in and she needs to take other calls."

The call lasted five minutes, and the woman said she finally stopped following the driver after several miles.

Hours later, she was angered and saddened when she learned on the news that the man drove into the rention pond and died.

"Five minutes on the phone with 911 and getting no response was pretty amazing, whereas when you have an accident that happens, they turn on their sirens," the woman said. "They're rushing to an accident, running through red lights, stopping traffic, but yet you have someone who is in need of their help prior to an accident, and there's not the urgency then."

Traffic homicide investigators said Monday they could not release any information on the fatal crash because the investigation is ongoing.