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Women injured when SUV plunged into the Mahoning River
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
An SUV containing two women went down a gravel and dirt path beside railroad tracks off of Highland Avenue Southwest and dropped 30 feet off of a ledge and into the Mahoning River just after midnight Sunday.
Both women were injured and were taken to the Trumbull Regional Medical Center, one with possible serious injuries.
One of the women called 911 and both were rescued by Warren police and firefighters, who hauled the women up the 30-foot embankment in baskets specially designed for that task, said Rick Yauger, assistant Warren fire chief.
The driver of the SUV was Pamela J. Davis, 61, of Front Street Southwest. The passenger was Shirley M. Harris, 33, of Chestnut Street.
In the 911 call, one of the women said her sister had suffered a broken arm. A male voice heard on the woman’s cellphone told a dispatcher the other woman had leg injuries.
The woman calling 911 said the last thing she remembered was her vehicle turning right off of Highland Avenue, but she didn’t know where she was. She said someone had run them off of the road.
The 911 center used cellphone technology that indicated she was calling from near Red’s Auto Glass on South Street, which is near a bridge that spans the Mahoning River. The railroad trestle is a short distance south of the South Street bridge.
The 911 operator stayed on the phone with the caller trying without much luck to find out whether either woman was still in the vehicle or in the water.
“We are under the bridge!” the woman screamed. “My sister cannot move her arm. We are under the bridge.”
A police report says the vehicle went front-first off of the ledge, hit front first and turned on its roof, then turned over again before coming to rest in the river half-submerged, top-side up.