CHARLOTTE AMALIE — Police won’t say if they will investigate an accident where an elderly woman died after a head-on collision with one vehicle and then crossed the Veteran’s Drive median and ultimately plunged into the harbor on the waterfront in St. Thomas.
Evelyn Edwards, 72, was identified as the woman who apparently drowned as this photo was being taken of her car sinking into the Charlotte Amalie waterfront on Friday.
Edwards was heading east on Veteran’s Drive at 6:28 p.m. in a Nissan Murano when it collided with a van going in the opposite direction, according to unofficial police sources.
Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD) spokesman Glen Dratte said Edwards tried to avoid the oncoming van, but was still sideswiped in the accident and knocked into the ocean.
The driver of the van was not ticketed and was allowed to leave the scene of the fatal accident before police could gather more information from him, Dratte said.
Once the car was submerged underwater, authorities were able to remove the vehicle from the ocean and Edwards lifeless body was transported to the Schneider Regional Medical Center where she was officially pronounced dead.
Authorities said that she had sustained serious injuries in the collision, but would not release an official cause of death.