Barnstead Fire Chief Al Poulin told firefighter Ben Arey to turn around on Route 126 Sunday night.
Poulin, who’s spent nearly 40 years fighting fires, has made it a habit of glancing over to the side of the road at wooded areas, rivers and lakes that are so close to the hum of traffic, yet so far away.
He’s spotted a vehicle maybe a handful of times, and he saw one halfway submerged in the Big River Sunday night, before divers discovered the body of an 82-year old woman from Allenstown, about 400 yards from the crash site.
An investigation is underway as to the circumstances surrounding the crash. Poulin said he didn’t know the name of the victim.
Poulin said the accident occurred sometime Sunday night, but the exact time of the crash was unknown. He said the woman, who was alone in the car, somehow lost control of her Toyota Prius while negotiating a sharp right turn on Route. 126.
She veered past a vacant house, across a lawn, down an embankment and into six feet of water, Poulin said.
He and Arey were on patrol conducting fire inspections Monday morning when Poulin, heading west on Route 126, spotted the vehicle at 10:30 a.m. Poulin said there were no marks in the road to reveal what might have happened.
“There was nothing to indicate that she was braking,” Poulin said.
The car was close to the shore, giving the two firefighters a good look at the scene, although they didn’t know for sure if someone was still inside.
The icy water reached to just beneath the door on the right side.
Poulin called for rescue personnel, and divers soon confirmed that the Prius was empty, with the doors closed and the front-end smashed.
Divers, checking downstream, discovered the woman, who was almost totally submerged beneath the water line, surrounded by ice. She had no pulse when divers arrived.
“Within five minutes they called and said they found her frozen to the ice shelf,” Poulin said.
Authorities pulled the woman from the Big River, but she was beyond the point of resuscitation. Poulin said police from Barnstead and members of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department assisted. Barnstead Police Chief Paul Poirier did not return a message left for him.
The woman’s family was contacted within an hour, Poulin said.
Poulin said he’s spotted a car or two while scanning beyond the guardrail on Interstate 93, but not like this, with a driver plunging into a freezing river.
“In my 37 years in working in Manchester, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Poulin said.