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As he looked at a white car sitting nose down in a creek at the bottom of an 8-foot embankment, Lower Windsor Township Police Sgt. Tim Caldwell said the teenage driver was lucky to walk away.
The 17-year-old girl lost control on a curve in the 500 block of Barshinger Road about 8:30 a.m. Thursday and skidded 80 feet on wet grass before hitting a maple tree at the foot of the creek.
The tree stopped the car from flipping over into the 1-foot-deep water of Beaver Creek.
When Caldwell arrived, the girl had already managed to get out of the wreckage.
She cut herself on some glass as she climbed out the broken rear passenger window of her Saturn SL2. She was alert and conscious with minor injuries but was taken to Memorial Hospital as a precaution, Caldwell said.
The girl, who was not identified because she is a juvenile, was not wearing a seat belt, the officer said.
"God almighty was watching over this kid. She really could have been hurt," Caldwell said.
A woman babysitting a family nearby heard the crash and walked about a quarter-mile to investigate.
She discovered the car barely visible from the thick vegetation and called 911, Caldwell said.
The crash victim was sitting with the woman when help arrived, he said.
"She (the girl) was more shaken up and scared than anything," Caldwell said.
Caldwell attributed the wreck to inexperienced driving, driving too fast for conditions and roadways and grass that were slick from the storms
The car was unable to stop in a freshly cut grass field, he said.
"Her car went off the road on the wet grass, and she panicked. She hit the brake for about 80 feet on the wet grass before she went into the creek," Caldwell said.
"Wet grass in the summer is like ice in the winter. It's a slick surface."
