02jul04
AS the water rose inside their family wagon, Pat Campanella knew his wife's driving lesson had taken a wrong turn.
Moments earlier, home owner Katherine Peacock saw a station wagon crash through her fence, roll across her patio deck and plunge into her swimming pool.
She watched, stunned, as the vehicle sank.
"I thought I was dreaming," Mrs Peacock, 80, told the Honolulu Advertiser. "I was so shaken up."
Pat and Mimi Campanella sat in the 2001 silver Toyota Highlander as it filled with water.
"As we landed in the pool, I remembered a movie and I waited for the water to fill the car and then I opened the door," said Pat Campanella, 56.
Letting water in equalises the pressure and allows the door to open.
He pushed his wife out and got them to the side of the pool, the Advertiser reported.
Despite the scare, no one was hurt, and the car remained there as a neighbourhood curiosity until yesterday, when it was pulled from the bottom by a tow truck equipped with a crane.
The wrong turn happened about 1pm.
Learner driver Mimi Campanella was crossing an intersection and over-compensated for an oncoming car, her husband said.
Mrs Peacock's son, Mark, heard the crash from his house three doors away and rushed over to help.
The cost of getting the car out of the deep end was estimated at $3500-$7000.
Mrs Campanella was shaken by Saturday's incident and doctors advised her to get back on the road quickly.
But her husband said that's probably going to take some persuading.
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A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams...John Barrymore
