Woman leaves road, hits levy, goes airborne and then into Great Miami River

UPDATE @ 4:20 p.m.

A woman traveling on Webster Street this afternoon went off the road, drove over a levy, went airborne and traveled another 30 yards before reaching the edge of the Great Miami River.

The woman, whose name was not released, was taken to Miami Valley Hospital for injuries not believed to be serious.

Witness Steve Grefer was working on a building around 3:20 p.m. when he saw the silver Toyota Camry approach.

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“This is a dead-end road and I seen that she wasn’t slowing down and I said ‘she’s not going to make that turn.’ She hit the levy, went up over the other side so I took off running to see if I couldn’t rescue her. I got up to the top of the levy and that car was gone,” he said.

At that point, Grefer said he knew the car was likely in the river, so he “went running down to the edge of the river, and the car was sinking into the river.”

Rescuers arrived before the car slid under the water.

Grefer said the woman never applied her brakes, so he suspects she either fell asleep behind the wheel or suffered a medical issue.

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“She hit that hill so hard it was unbelievable,” he said. “She was airborne. She went over the to of that hill and was airborne.”

FIRST REPORT

A motorist was rescued this afternoon from a car that went into the Great Miami River.

The silver Toyota Camry went off the road and into the water around 3:20 p.m. in the 2000 block of Webster Street in Dayton.

The car was nose-down, but initially was not sinking. However, the driver, a woman, could not get out, according to the Montgomery County Regional Dispatch Center.

She was rescued at 3:30 p.m., according to a dispatch center sergeant.