An overturned car is removed early Thursday from Bond Brook in Augusta after the Volkswagen Passat slid down a 20-foot embankment. The driver escaped without injury, rescuers say. Photo courtesy of Augusta Police Department

AUGUSTA — A car slid off icy Tall Pines Way in Augusta and down a 20-foot embankment early Thursday, ending up on its roof in Bond Brook, according to rescuers.

The driver was wet and shaken up, but otherwise uninjured. The man, who was not identified Thursday, escaped the overturned car and the water before rescue workers arrived.

Firefighters who responded to the call donned wet suits and went into freezing Bond Brook to confirm no one was inside the Volkswagen Passat, according to Chief David Groder of the Augusta Fire Department.

“We could not confirm there was nobody in the vehicle, and until we confirm something, we don’t just walk away, so (firefighters) suited up, put ropes on and checked it out as best we could,” Groder said. “There was nobody else in there.”

Groder said the driver had apparently driven off Bond Brook Road onto Tall Pines Way and, due to the road’s icy surface, was unable to make the turn right onto the bridge. Instead, the car went off the road to the left of the bridge, down an embankment and came to a stop on its roof in the brook.

The incident was reported to rescue workers at 5:20 a.m. The original report requested an ambulance be sent to assist a person who was wet and barefoot while walking on the road, according to officials.

Groder said the driver was taken to the hospital to be checked.

The car was towed out of the brook at about 7 a.m.

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