Two Titusville girls escape snowy mishap without injury

Car swooshed off the road, down an embankment and into a branch of Woolsey Creek

By John Tredrea
   Seventeen-year-old Maeve Ryan and the 13-year-old girl who was her passenger must have been counting their blessings late Friday morning.
   After what could well have been the most adventurous ride either one of them had ever had, or ever will have, they stood uninjured alongside Scotch Road and soon were taken under the wing of police and first-aid workers as a snowstorm continued to swirl about them.
   Maeve, of Church Road, Titusville, lost control of her northbound 1997 Dodge Stratus on slush-covered Scotch Road at 11:32 a.m. Friday, said township Police Chief George Meyer. The girl riding with her, whose name and address were not disclosed by police, also is a township resident.
   The girls are high school students, who attend a private school that let out early due to the weather. Maeve was taking her passenger home, Chief Meyer said Tuesday.
   Maeve’s car swooshed off the road, down an embankment and into a branch of Woolsey Creek. The car was upside down when it stopped moving. Maeve and her passenger crawled though the driver’s door, out of the tributary, up the embankment and onto Scotch Road again.
   "They were standing along the road when police arrived," Chief Meyer said. "Both were very wet and cold, but otherwise uninjured."
   The Pennington First Aid Squad responded and checked the girls out. Both were pronounced OK and neither was taken to the hospital. The road was closed for about an hour and a half while the vehicle was removed from the creek and towed away.
   No summonses were issued.
   Chief Meyer said about 10 other vehicles slipped off the road during Friday’s snow/sleet storm. No serious injuries occurred in any of the incidents.