THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 3, 1997 TAG: 9701030476
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ONANCOCK LENGTH: 49 lines
When rescue workers found the Camaro on New Year's Day, it was upside down at the bottom of Onancock Creek.
The driver couldn't remember whether she'd had a passenger during the high-speed chase that ended in the cold and turgid water.
A rescue diver couldn't see into the car when he found it. Only after a wrecker had winched the Camaro to land was anyone sure the car was empty.
``All things considered, all involved were very fortunate,'' said B.W. James, Onancock's fire chief and one of the rescue workers.
The chase began about 1 a.m. Wednesday when state police saw the 1994 Camaro speeding on Route 13 near Perdue. Sgt. T.C. Haines said the car was going more than 100 mph.
The 17-year-old driver, who was not identified because she is a juvenile, ignored the police emergency lights and siren, police said. She headed through Onley and Melfa, then turned off the highway onto airport road.
The car raced along winding country roads with the police in pursuit. In Onancock, at a T in the road, she crashed into an embankment beside a cemetery, police said. Before the police could arrive, she pulled out of the ditch and headed toward town.
The car zipped through the town to the waterfront, police said, hit the boat ramp and kept going.
``She just went straight,'' Haines said. The Camaro skimmed 150 to 200 feet across the top of the water before sinking, as police watched.
``Her head popped up as the car was going down,'' Haines said. No one knows how the driver got out of the car, he said. ``We assume the front window was down from the previous accident.''
The teenager swam to the town dock. She said she didn't know if anyone else had been in the car.
``She was quite a bit agitated, excited and cold,'' James said. Police later found whiskey and vodka bottles in the car, he said.
The teenager was treated at a hospital and released. Meanwhile, rescuers searched the 42-degree water with depth finders and a diver from the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.
``We continued until 6 a.m.,'' James said. ``Then we stopped to let the diver warm up.''
The search resumed at 9:30 a.m. By then a large crowd had gathered at the dock and gasoline was leaking from the Camaro. Police cleared the dock.
Finally, the diver found the car on the creek bottom. He attached cables, and a wrecker winched the empty car out of the water.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC POLICE CHASE HIGH-SPEED CHASE