Three people, including a married couple, were killed when their vehicles plunged into icy waters in two separate chain-reaction crashed over the weekend in Burlington County.
In the most recent fatality, a Burlington City woman died Sunday when the car in which she was riding drove into the icy Delaware River about 1 p.m . Sunday.
Burlington City police who responded to the call found the victim in the passenger seat of the submerged front end of a car in the river near Wood Street. The driver had fled the scene, officials said.
The woman was taken to Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County in Willingboro, where she was pronounced dead.
“A preliminary investigation revealed that the driver was traveling at a high rate of speed along Riverbank Road when his vehicle struck a parked minivan before vaulting over the river wall and into the water,” said Joel Bewley, spokesman for the Burlington County prosecutor’s office.
The driver, a Burlington City man, was later picked up by police from Beverly City and Edgewater Park Township. He was also taken to Lourdes for a medical evaluation.
The investigation was continuing, and names of the driver and the deceased passenger have not yet been released.
In the earlier incident, a married couple from Burlington Township was killed about 4:30 p.m. Saturday when their car was rammed by another vehicle and plunged down an embankment into a body of water that is part of Olympia Lakes in Willingboro.
The victims — Robert Stephens, 52, and his wife, Janet, 50 — were in a jug handle, waiting to cross over Route 130 onto Bridgeboro Road, when their minivan was struck by another vehicle traveling northbound at a high speed, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
That vehicle, a two-door sedan driven by Amish Patel, 29, of Delanco, entered the jug handle, went out of control, and crashed into the minivan. The force propelled the minivan over the guardrail and down an embankment, where it broke through the ice and became submerged.
Multiple rescue squads and fire departments were involved in pulling Robert and Janet Stephens from the water. They were pronounced dead Saturday night at Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County in Willingboro.
The Prosecutor’s Office and the Willingboro Township Police Department are investigating, but no charges have been filed. Authorities are awaiting the results of toxicology tests on Patel.
Anyone who witnessed the crash is asked to call Burlington County Central Communications at 609-265-7113.