Authorities respond after woman drives car into flooded ditch in Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach paramedics were tending to a woman who drove her car into a ditch that contained several feet of water near 38th Avenue North at approximately 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon.

The woman’s car was about halfway submerged in a deep ditch nearly filled with water between the Zaxby’s parking lot and U.S. 17 Bypass just south of 38th Avenue.

The woman was upright on a stretcher as Myrtle Beach Fire Department and Ocean Rescue employees tended to her and began the early stages of removing the car. Myrtle Beach Fire Department Cpt. Vince Bettinazzi said crews rescued the woman quickly after her car went into the water.

Bettinazzi said officials initially thought the car wound up there because of a wreck on U.S. 17 Bypass. Instead, it made its way there when the woman drove over a median and bushes into the water from the Zaxby’s parking lot, he said.

Bettinazzi said it was unclear what led to the incident and that the woman was going to be taken to the hospital to be further checked out.

This story was originally published June 30, 2019 at 1:25 PM.