Driver charged with OVI after driving jeep into pool

Updated
Woman Drives Jeep Into Backyard Swimming Pool
Woman Drives Jeep Into Backyard Swimming Pool


LAKEWOOD, Ohio - An out-of-control driver becomes a "party crasher" in a west-side suburb -- and the person who nearly became a victim ended up saving the driver's life.

Fox 8 reports: An SUV submerged under water is not what one would expect to see at a backyard pool party -- but, that was the situation at the Lakewood home of Nancy and Trent Wilson.

"And, we looked towards the fence, we heard an explosion. I thought it was bomb. That's what everyone thought, it's just a bomb," Nancy Wilson said.

Lakewood police said that the driver raced down a driveway on Lake Avenue, crashed through a fence and landed in the swimming pool. Trent Wilson had opened the pool for the first time this year and had about 15 friends over for a party.

"The firemen, police said she was probably going about 30 to 40 miles an hour to break through the fence," he said.

Three people were actually in the pool when the jeep hit the water. Chris Sanford had just dove in.

"Literally when I hit the water that's when the jeep came through. So, if I would have waited two more seconds, I would have been struck in mid-air," Sanford said.

Sanford ended up saving the female driver from drowning.

"She had her safety belt on. I pulled her out of the vehicle. She went under a couple of times because I couldn't get her safety belt off and the door was locked. I successfully got her out of the car though," he said.

Sanford said the woman keep saying that her brakes were bad.

"But, the way that she hit that fence and she almost cleared this entire pool, there's no way that her brakes were bad," Sanford added.

Police said thar the driver was impaired. Cheryl Chapman, 46, of Lakewood has been charged with OVI.

Wilson knows that the situation could have been much worse and he is grateful no one was seriously hurt.

"If the pool was not here, who knows what would have happened. The pool probably saved her life and all my friends," he said.

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