Winter Solstice morning Friday brought an odd warm rain that created flash flood warnings and fast water throughout Rockland County. The Sloatsburg Volunteer Fire Department was out in the early downpour responding to a call on Sterling Mine Road that turned out to be a false alarm. Just as the trucks arrived back at the village station, at approximately 8:30 a.m., the department got another emergency call regarding a partially submerged vehicle adrift in the Ramapo River.

According to LoHud writer Mareesa Nicosia, a call came through reporting that a car was seen in the river near Orange Turnpike, under the New York State Thruway, at the border between the villages of Hillburn and Suffern.

The SFD’s dive rescue team responded to the call along with the Hillburn Fire Department. After fast-flowing swollen river water had snapped the rescue line the SFD ran to the vehicle, Mahwah Co. 1 and Stony Point Wayne Hose Company #1 swift water rescue and dive teams were called in as well. Both agencies have marine apparatus to deal with in-water rescue.

With a back seat window down, responders initially thought the vehicle’s driver might be trapped inside. After exploring with a flat-bottom fan boat, it was determined that the SUV had been abandoned.

Just after the SFD completed its rescue effort, the vehicle began to float in the current and was swept nearly 100 feet downriver before sinking out of sight.

Information about the vehicle was sketchy in the first hours of the emergency response, but Suffern Police Chief Clarke Osborn later reported that the blue 2005 Ford Expedition was registered to a Mahwah, N.J., woman whose identity has been kept confidential.

The whole debacle of the Expedition ending up in the drink appeared to be rooted in a borrowed car and a four wheeling joyride on mucky trails that went way wrong.

According to a report by Jessica Mazzola of the MahwahPatch, Mahwah Co. 1 Assistant Fire Chief said that dirt roadways behind the Sharp Electronics building complex were flooded by the Ramapo River. The SUV appeared to have gotten stuck on one of these roads. But how it made its way into the middle of the Ramapo River is still a mystery.

Sloatsburg fire fighter Pete Akey said that the area is a popular recreational spot. “A lot of guys go down there to four wheel,” Akey said, recalling that the SFD responded to a call last year in the same area, when a four wheeler in a Jeep Grand Cherokee became stuck in the mud on the back trails. The SFD, along the the Suffern Fire Department, ended up hauling out both the driver and vehicle.

To date, the whole incident is being filed under off-road misadventure. There were no reported injuries and no charges have been filed, although, according to LoHud writer Mareesa Nicosia, who first reported on the incident, “Department of Environmental Conservation officers were contacted and could file charges because of rules about vehicles driving in waterways.”

Photos courtesy of MahwahPatch.