A woman died yesterday after crashing her sport utility vehicle into the Anacostia River and remaining submerged in the icy water for more than an hour.
Police identified the woman last night as Shatoya Williams, 19, of Suitland. No other victims were found in the car.
The accident occurred about 11:30 a.m. when Miss Williams was driving west on Pennsylvania Avenue SE and ran off the road near the John Phillip Sousa Bridge. The vehicle went down an embankment and traveled 200 yards through Anacostia Park before plunging into the river, witnesses told rescuer workers.
The police investigation of the crash is continuing. As of yesterday evening, police had not determined why the woman drove into the river, said Officer Junis Fletcher of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.
“We’ve got to piece it together to see exactly what happened,” he said.
Such accidents are not uncommon in the District, said D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Alan Etter.
“We have a lot of water around here,” he said. “People drive off the road into the water all the time.”
More than 20 of the department’s rescue workers, including divers and a fireboat crew, and units from District police and the U.S. Park Police responded to the scene.
It took about 45 minutes for the divers to locate the car in the murky river water. They pulled the unconscious woman to the surface and aboard the fireboat, where paramedics began administering “aggressive” CPR, said Mr. Etter.
The rescuers believed the frigid water gave the woman a chance of recovering due to the mammalian dive reflex — a condition triggered by lack of oxygen in which the body conserves blood for the heart, lungs and brain.
“A cold-water resuscitation is not unheard of,” Mr. Etter said. “Your body can sustain itself for a longer period of time in colder water.”
Miss Williams had not regained consciousness when the U.S. Park Police’s Eagle II helicopter flew her to the trauma center at Washington Hospital Center. She was pronounced dead at the hospital early yesterday evening.
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