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In the blink of an eye Sunday night, an SUV driver went flying off I-66 in Fairfax County, crashed through a fence and straight into a retention pond.
The vehicle began sinking in the dark water, and two Virginia State troopers arrived as water was filling the compartment of the vehicle.
Video from a highway traffic camera shows from a distance how Virginia State Troopers Alexander King and Brady Foret pulled beside the retention pond as the SUV was sinking.
It was dark, about 9:30 p.m., and they knew they had to work quickly.
Two passing motorists, one a U.S. Capitol Police Officer on his way to work, offered assistance.
“We asked them, ‘Hey, you know, is there anyone in the car?’ And they said, ‘Yes, there’s a female just still trapped in there,’” said Trooper Alexander King with Virginia State Police. “So we said, ‘Okay.’ So then we took off our vests, took off our gun belts and handed the radio to the Capitol Police officer.”
A woman, described as being 40-years-old, was in the driver’s seat. When the troopers realized the water was quickly filling up the passenger compartment, they jumped in.
“Almost her entire front up to her driver doors were completely submerged, and then water had filled the back seat in the trunk, and so it was just slowly filling up, so the sunroof was the easiest point of access to get to her,” King said. “It was a big shock to us because we didn’t know that there were ponds deep enough for cars to submerge on the side of 66.”
Because temperatures have been dropping overnight, that water was cold. The two troopers and the driver were checked out to see if they had suffered from exposure from the cold water.
Virginia State Police say that the crash remains under investigation.