ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, June 18, 1996 TAG: 9606180081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH
SOURCE: Associated Press
A CAR CRASH VICTIM owes her life to the rusty skills of two bystanders who pulled her from the sinking vehicle.
Mary Foley learned CPR because she thought it was a good thing for a mother to know. She ended up using her rusty skills to save a woman who almost drowned after her car crashed into a watery ditch.
The accident happened about 4 p.m. Sunday in Sandbridge, a Virginia Beach police spokesman Lou Thurston said. Within minutes, Foley and neighbor Donny Jordan were struggling to bring life back to a woman Jordan had pulled from the wrecked car, partially submerged in a roadside ditch.
``She was full of a lot of murky water, grass and bugs,'' Foley said Sunday evening. ``I wish I had a video so she could see for herself how lucky they were.''
Police credited the neighbors' swift reaction with averting tragedy.
``This accident did involve alcohol and high speed on a very narrow, winding country road,'' Thurston said. ``The neighbors ... by doing CPR, probably saved this woman's life.''
The driver, identified as Dean Edwin Clark, 34, of Virginia Beach, was charged with second-offense driving under the influence and reckless driving, police said. His wife, Christy Lynn Clark, 37, was reported in critical condition at Virginia Beach General Hospital.
Jordan, 34, said he was working in his yard when he first saw the car speed by. ``They skidded around the first corner down here, but they didn't make it through the second,'' he said. ``I heard the crash.''
Jordan jumped into his vehicle and sped to the scene, 200 yards from his home.
``I could see two people,'' ``There was a man in the back seat sitting up, and the female - I could see her legs and backside - the rest [of her] was submerged,'' Jordan said. ``I knew someone had to get to that girl quick.''
LENGTH: Short : 44 linesby CNB