A woman who drove into high water on Brown Hill Road on Saturday night was able to escape and call relatives, who also got stuck in the rain-swollen creek while trying to help her.
Brown County (Nashville) Volunteer Fire Department and EMS were dispatched to the 900 block of Brown Hill Road at the creek crossing just after 11:30 p.m., according to a report by Brown County Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Stargell.
The OnStar service installed in the vehicle had called Brown County Dispatch, reporting that it had lost connection with the vehicle because it was submerged. Only about a foot of the Chevrolet Spark, a small car, was visible in the creek, Stargell’s report said.
He also saw a man with a Chevrolet Equinox SUV on the north side of the creek. Thomas Adkins, 76, Regina Adkins, 47, and James Deprez, 24, (the driver) were in the Equinox, the report said. Sgt. Bill Southerland helped them out of the water.
Stargell couldn’t see inside the vehicle that was submerged, so he was preparing to enter it to rescue anyone inside. Before he could get in the water, the driver, Delannie Adkins, 21, came up behind him and told him it was her car and she was the only one in it.
Delannie Adkins told police she did not see the high water and drove through it while using Brown Hill Road as a shortcut to get a friend’s birthday party, following her GPS, the report states. She said she entered the water about one hour before police arrived.
Delannie Adkins was able to exit the vehicle and went to a home in the 900 block to call her parents. They were in the Equinox, which also had entered the rising creek, the report said.
A wrecker was not called to the scene to remove the vehicles because of safety concerns. They were removed the next day when the water receded, the report said.
Thomas and Regina Adkins were checked out by EMS at the scene and were released without any injuries, then driven home by reserve deputy Wayne Robbins. Delannie Adkins was taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure.
