WILLMAR -- Two people escaped unharmed, but were cold and wet, after the 1999 Ford Taurus in which they were riding left the road and entered a retention pond in southeast Willmar early Friday morning.
The driver, 21-year-old Heather M. Peterson of Willmar, and passenger, Karie Peterson, 17, of Belgrade, escaped after the car drove off the road and entered the pond at the intersection of Ninth Street and 24th Avenue Southeast.
Police were called by a passer-by at 5:25 a.m. who found the two women at the edge of the road. The car crashed through a thin layer of ice and was submerged in about eight feet of water, police said.
A Kandiyohi County Sheriff's deputy in a rescue suit used a canoe from a neighbor to float over the location of the vehicle and attach a cable from a tow truck from Ed's Service Center of Willmar. Police said the car was removed after an hour and a half.
