CAMDEN — An abandoned vehicle was found at the bottom of a pond on Monday, June 26.
According to Chief Deputy Michael Spitler of the Preble County Sheriff’s Office, it is believed the driver lost control of the vehicle while traveling eastbound on Ohio 725 and fled the scene without calling for help.
The Preble County Sheriff’s Office received a call at approximately 12:45 p.m. on Monday, June 26, of a vehicle submerged in a pond on Ohio 725 between Quaker Trace and Wayne Trace Roads. The Sheriff’s Office was joined by other emergency personnel as they waited for Task Force One Dive 60 Public Safety Dive Team to arrive.
When first reporting to the scene, PCSO officials did not know whether there was a person in the pond. Spitler added, the pond was “quite murky down towards the car” and he foresaw some difficulties recovering the vehicle.
At the scene, Deputy Spitler said they did not know exactly what time the car went into the pond. He added, “Through investigation and talking to the neighbors, we believe it was sometime during the night. Although they did not see the vehicle go into the pond, they witnessed the vehicle travel into a ditch line and heard a noise, they looked outside and did not see headlights. They did not investigate any further. Today, when looking at the tracks they followed it to the pond. That is when they saw the vehicle.”
Once officials did recover the vehicle, they soon learned the identity of the driver and that they had left their car in the pond.
“We’ve since located the driver of the vehicle shortly after the vehicle was pulled from the pond. We verified they are okay,” Spitler said. “We will be conducting an investigation involving the crash at this point. As far as we can tell, there were no injuries and nobody else was involved. The driver is indicating that he lost control of the vehicle.”
Spitler added, the driver “did not have a good answer” for why he or she did not call for help.
The driver could face a traffic charge and possibly a failure to control charge, but any damages would be a civil matter and be taken care of through insurance, officials said.
