A woman rescued from her submerged sport utility vehicle after driving into a Cherokee County retention pond early Monday remained in critical condition Tuesday.
Firefighters rescued the woman after her SUV plunged into the pond before daybreak Monday.
The wreck happened about 4:45 a.m. as the vehicle was traveling eastbound on The Fairway towards Batesville Road, near Milton. The driver, identified as 31-year-old Shanell Latrice Anderson of Sandy Springs, lost control of the vehicle, left the roadway and entered a pond, Georgia State Patrol spokeswoman Franka Young said.
Anderson was in critical condition at North Fulton Hospital Tuesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.
She was a contracted employee for an Atlanta Journal-Constitution distributor.
“She was just out delivering papers and somehow lost control of her vehicle,” Cherokee sheriff’s Lt. Jay Baker told Channel 2 Action News.
Anderson called 911 after driving into the pond and told dispatchers that her car was filling with water, Channel 2 reported. Baker told the news station that the vehicle, a Nissan Xterra, was completely submerged when rescue personnel arrived.
“Two firemen from Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services entered the lake and removed the driver,” Baker said.
Firefighters said they went into the water, but the doors to the submerged SUV were locked, so they used a pounding tool to break the glass.
They said that while the vehicle was mostly filled with water, there was an air pocket in a back corner of the Xterra, and that’s where they found the driver.
Fog may have been a factor in the crash, according to Channel 2.
— David Tulis contributed to this article.
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