news-record.com

GREENSBORO — A Reidsville teenager was killed Wednesday afternoon after she lost control of a car, which went airborne and landed upside down in a retention pond.

Witnesses frantically tried to free the young woman, who was underwater for about seven minutes before firefighters freed her.

She was rushed to Moses Cone Hospital, where she died.

Police have identified her as Laura Cristina Salinas, 18. Police said she was the only person in the car.

The accident happened about 2:30 p.m. as Salinas was driving north on U.S. 29, said Lt. J.R. Franks of Greensboro police. It shut down the highway for three hours.

Franks said Salinas was driving in the left lane when she passed Cone Boulevard and lost control of her silver 2000 Nissan Altima.

The car veered right onto a grassy median that runs between U.S. 29 and an on-ramp. The car then hit an embankment and went airborne, Franks said.

The car clipped a guardrail, which sent it flipping down an estimated 15-foot embankment and into a retention pond between U.S. 29 and Sands Drive.

The car landed upside down, crushing the roof, Franks said.

Motorists along Sands Drive saw the car sitting in the water and rushed to save Salinas.

“I got in there to get the doors open, but they were jammed shut,” said John Gravley, one of the two men who went into the 2-foot deep water in an attempt to rescue the teen.

Gravley said the windows of the car were submerged and he felt around inside trying to unlock the door and get it open.

“Another man brought us a crowbar, and it didn’t do any good,” said Gravley, as he stood barefoot in wet pants along Sands Drive.

Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com