Ellis Goodwin
VERDEN – A Verden husband and wife are lucky to be alive this week after the car they were in careened into a pond north of Verden and submerged during the Christmas Eve snow storm.
Kevin Chaney and his wife, Teresa Stockard, were traveling north on County Line Road when they experienced white out conditions that made it too difficult to drive.
About one mile north of Verden, they turned around their vehicle, but they could not see warning signs as they approached a collapsed bridge.
Chaney said he saw the railing at the last minute and tried to stop, but it was too late. Their car slid up the guardrail and catapulted towards the water. He said it hit a couple of boulders and landed nose first in the water.
The 2007 Ford Fusion rolled onto its top and began to sink. Chaney acted quickly to free himself and Stockard, who is disabled. Chaney wasn't able to retrieve Princess, the couple's 4-year-old Border Collie.
After escaping the car, Chaney ran a quarter-mile to the nearest house. He said he pounded on the door, but nobody answered. In a panic, he broke into the home, which was equipped with an alarm system.
"I've never been happier to hear an alarm go off," he said. "I knew what it was, and I was smiling."
Almost immediately the phone rang. Chaney picked it up and explained to the security company what happened. The company immediately called emergency crews, and within minutes Stockard and Chaney were being treated by EMS from Anadarko.
Stockard has not given up hope on Princess. She has returned to the seen several times to look for her puppy, which has been a source of comfort for her since she lost a daughter a few years ago.
"She still can't sleep," Chaney said. And, he knows that they will have to find their beloved pet before any peace can be felt.
"I just want to get my dog and put it to rest," Chaney said.
Divers Keith Choate and Rodney Peterson were called to find the submerged vehicle. They are sport divers and haven't done underwater salvage work. They spent nearly an hour underwater searching for the vehicle Wednesday, but they did not locate it.
They searched until they ran out of air and later noted that visibility under water was less than 20 inches.
As the sun set, they decided to wait until today to continue their work.
Crews from Johnson's Wrecker in Chickasha brought a crane to lift the vehicle. It is not the first time they have had to fish out a car from under the same bridge. Jimmy Johnson said a drunk driver hit the embankment at a high rate of speed last year and launched himself into the water and died.
