Driver presumed dead as car plunges into Schuylkill

A WOMAN whose car crashed through a stone barrier and plunged into the Schuylkill yesterday afternoon resurfaced once and screamed for help before disappearing into the river again, witnesses told police.

By 9 p.m. a silver Mercury Grand Marquis was hoisted by crane from the brown and murky water, but the woman wasn't inside. Divers said that the search for her body would resume this morning.

Police said it appeared as if the woman was alone when the car crashed about 4:15 p.m.

Witnesses told police that she was driving along Ferry Road toward the Kelly Drive when she blew through the intersection and stone wall, then crashed into the river.

"She was going at least 70 miles an hour," said Coran August, a witness who was on Kelly Drive at the time.

The woman swerved to miss a telephone pole, and instead plowed through the stone barrier, August said.

"She just had her head above water, then it took her under," August said, adding that after the crash, the woman was swept south toward pylons supporting railroad tracks.

A pink and orange Armani Exchange purse and a black Samsung Metro PCS cellphone were found floating near the area where the woman crashed.

Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said that there was no identification inside the purse and that police would try drying her phone to try to learn her identity.

She was described as black with short hair, and may have been middle-aged.

Police in the Accident Investigation Division said that it did not look as if she had braked before impact.

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey was on the scene as police searched the river about 5 p.m., and stood by as the car was lifted from the water about 9.

Anyone with information on the woman's identity is asked to call the Accident Investigation Division at 215-685-3180.