https://www.dailycommercial.com/news/20190315/lady-lake-dui-suspects-car-sucked-into-sinkhole
SUMMERFIELD — A suspected drunk driver crashed into a fire hydrant off South U.S. 441 early Friday morning, then had to be rescued along with another woman when the car was swallowed up by the eight-foot-deep pit created by the gushing hydrant.
Alexandrea Runyon, 21, of Lady Lake, was charged with DUI with property damage.
Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Crystal Sollazzo said Runyon told her she doesn't remember much about the crash, other than that she was traveling south on U.S. 441 and somehow turned onto Southeast 156th Place.
Another driver on his way home saw the car by the fire hydrant, got out of his vehicle and asked Runyon if everything was all right. The man's mother came to the crash site and tried to help Runyon, but that side of the vehicle sank suddenly into the water, and both women went in as well. Troopers said the hole was about 20 feet wide and eight feet deep.
Lt. Jeff Raker, a watch commander with the Marion County Sheriff's Office, arrived at the scene. Officials said he and Firefighter/EMT Michael Alvarez pulled the women to safety.
The son and mother who initially came to Runyon's aid, Shawn Drake and Dawn Drake, described the harrowing experience.
Dawn Drake said when she got to the scene, she couldn't see Runyon so she walked around to the front of the car on the driver's side. The Buick was surrounded by water at the time.
"Down I went into 10 feet of water. ... I was hanging on for dear life," she said, describing how she clung to the front driver's side tire and the front door, which was open. Runyon was hanging onto the bottom panel of the car on the driver's side.
Shawn Drake tried to save his mother and Runyon.
Both women were "up to their heads in water," he said.
He climbed in through the passenger side of the car and pulled Runyon into the vehicle.
"She was fighting me," he said. Runyon wouldn't come across the front of the car so he could get to his mother.
Runyon, he said, "had no idea what was going on."
Runyon tried to close the driver's side door, he recalled, and he yelled, "Stop (expletive) trying to close that door. My mom is hanging onto it."
He told her he'd kill her if she caused his mother's death. Then, he said, "she stopped fussing." He got out onto the hood but realized he couldn't pulled his mom to safety without the risk of her sinking to her death.
Shortly after that, he said, Lt. Raker arrived.
Dawn Drake said the firefighter got on the hood of the car, and Raker helped pull her out from the edge of the hole.
"I was probably hanging on for 10 minutes," she said. "I tell you I'm sore. ... I've got gashes on my fingers where I was hanging on."
She added, "They were my heroes — and my son Shawn. ... I'm thankful that God, he had another plan for me."
After a field sobriety test, Runyon was arrested and taken to the Marion County Jail. Sollazzo said a breath test at the jail found a blood alcohol level of .161, which is twice the level at which a driver in Florida is presumed to be intoxicated.
SUMMERFIELD — A suspected drunk driver crashed into a fire hydrant off South U.S. 441 early Friday morning, then had to be rescued along with another woman when the car was swallowed up by the eight-foot-deep pit created by the gushing hydrant.
Alexandrea Runyon, 21, of Lady Lake, was charged with DUI with property damage.
Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Crystal Sollazzo said Runyon told her she doesn't remember much about the crash, other than that she was traveling south on U.S. 441 and somehow turned onto Southeast 156th Place.
Another driver on his way home saw the car by the fire hydrant, got out of his vehicle and asked Runyon if everything was all right. The man's mother came to the crash site and tried to help Runyon, but that side of the vehicle sank suddenly into the water, and both women went in as well. Troopers said the hole was about 20 feet wide and eight feet deep.
Lt. Jeff Raker, a watch commander with the Marion County Sheriff's Office, arrived at the scene. Officials said he and Firefighter/EMT Michael Alvarez pulled the women to safety.
The son and mother who initially came to Runyon's aid, Shawn Drake and Dawn Drake, described the harrowing experience.
Dawn Drake said when she got to the scene, she couldn't see Runyon so she walked around to the front of the car on the driver's side. The Buick was surrounded by water at the time.
"Down I went into 10 feet of water. ... I was hanging on for dear life," she said, describing how she clung to the front driver's side tire and the front door, which was open. Runyon was hanging onto the bottom panel of the car on the driver's side.
Shawn Drake tried to save his mother and Runyon.
Both women were "up to their heads in water," he said.
He climbed in through the passenger side of the car and pulled Runyon into the vehicle.
"She was fighting me," he said. Runyon wouldn't come across the front of the car so he could get to his mother.
Runyon, he said, "had no idea what was going on."
Runyon tried to close the driver's side door, he recalled, and he yelled, "Stop (expletive) trying to close that door. My mom is hanging onto it."
He told her he'd kill her if she caused his mother's death. Then, he said, "she stopped fussing." He got out onto the hood but realized he couldn't pulled his mom to safety without the risk of her sinking to her death.
Shortly after that, he said, Lt. Raker arrived.
Dawn Drake said the firefighter got on the hood of the car, and Raker helped pull her out from the edge of the hole.
"I was probably hanging on for 10 minutes," she said. "I tell you I'm sore. ... I've got gashes on my fingers where I was hanging on."
She added, "They were my heroes — and my son Shawn. ... I'm thankful that God, he had another plan for me."
After a field sobriety test, Runyon was arrested and taken to the Marion County Jail. Sollazzo said a breath test at the jail found a blood alcohol level of .161, which is twice the level at which a driver in Florida is presumed to be intoxicated.
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