December 13, 2006 -- Wrong information from a 911 caller caused a four-day delay in finding the bodies of a former Queens couple in their car, which had careened off a North Carolina highway into a swamp, authorities said yesterday.
An unknown cellphone caller told cops last Thursday morning that he saw the Mazda belonging to Wayne and Dianne Guay run off a straight stretch of I-95 in Rocky Mount, N.C., a mile or two north of where the accident actually occurred, police said.
So when authorities went to check the reported location - mile marker 141 - shortly afterward, there was no sign of an accident. After that, a state trooper drove three miles south of that location - to mile marker 138 - and then drove north looking for evidence of a crash, said Lt. Everett Clendenin of the North Carolina Highway Patrol.
The Guays' car veered off the highway onto a grassy embankment that was level with the roadway, knocked down a tree, crashed through a guardrail and then plummeted about 20 feet straight down into a swamp.
The car was found Monday in a swamp near - but not visible from - I-95, between mile markers 139 and 140. Inside were the bodies of Wayne, 57, a former city sanitation worker, and Dianne, 55, a former school aide.
An autopsy yesterday revealed that Wayne Guay died from the force of the crash, while his wife drowned, authorities said.
This is how I see the actual scenario: Driver headed north on I-95 sees car between mile marker 139 and 140. He calls in on his cell phone to 911. The dispatcher asks his location, and the driver sees the next mile marker, number 141 and says "Mile marker "141". The dispatcher sends the State Trooper there instead of back where the accident actually occurred.
So, the grassy embankment was "level with the roadway". I was wrong then about not being able to see the tire tracks because they were over the edge of the road and down a slope.
Normally, an embankment is sloping down from the roadway.
I don't get why the guardrail was down the embankment, though. You hit a tree first, *then* the guardrail that was supposed to keep you from hitting the tree?