Updated with Video: Car Flips Over in Resident's Back Yard on Fitzwater Drive, Nokesville

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A car crashed into a Nokesville residential backyard, hitting two trees and barreling through three fences, at 12919 Fitzwater Drive ten minutes past midnight Tuesday morning.

The driver, a woman in her fifties, seemed able to stand and walk out of the sedan before EMTs took her into the ambulance on a gurney. There were no other passengers in the vehicle, and no one else was injured.

Jason Shriner, who lives at the address, described the scene in which a car flipped over into his front yard on his Facebook page.

“She flung her car over the neighbor's driveway right after that tree, came between the two trees, missed my car, missed the shed, missed the house and ran up the tree,” said Shriner, who posted the accompanying photo shown here.

Shriner said he heard a loud shrieking sound just after midnight Tuesday morning, and went outside to discover a car had crashed into a large tree in his backyard. He immediately called 9-1-1.

Residents Shriner and Robert McGothlin surmised the car was unable to stop, or the driver had confused the gas petal for the break, because it hit several smaller obstacles before colliding headfirst with their sour gum tree.

Police markings, following tire tracks and indentations, indicate the car made an extreme wide right turn from Marsteller Drive onto onto Fitzwater before jumping the curb and landing in the adjacent gravel parking lot. From there, the car continued to drive through a chain wire fence separating the parking lot and a driveway.

Next the car appeared to have driven up the sidewalk hitting a neighbor’s mailbox, a bright yellow pedestrian crossing sign and a PVC beam next supporting power lines.

The driver then entered the residential yard, taking out a section of a wooden post fence and thinly woven wire fence. She then hit an 80-year-old dogwood tree, uprooting it.

However, dirt tire marks on the lawn are interrupted, indicating that the car flew off from the dogwood before landing 15 feet further from the road, just 5 feet short of the residents’ shed.

The car also narrowly missed Shriner’s car, which had been parked in the driveway in the backyard.

The Chevy was discovered almost on its side leaning against a large sour gum tree, which finally brought the vehicle to a stop.

“She had to be airborne, because that car was sitting up against a tree,” McGothlin said.

The woman, who was not wearing her seatbelt, was found perched on the dashboard with one leg dangling out the window. The dashboard was shattered.

“I don’t know how she survived that,” McGothlin said.

Shriner said he was so shaken by the accident that when he called 9-1-1, the operator had trouble understanding him. He was also afraid that the woman was dead, seeing her leg hanging out the car window. The operator asked him to find out how many were injured, but Shriner did not know if more people were in the vehicle or had even been thrown out of the vehicle.

EMTs arrived a few minutes later with four fire trucks, eight police cars and two ambulances, according to McGothlin's account.

On his Facebook page, Shriner accounted the incident writing, “And NO this is not an April Fools’ Joke.” He described the sound the car made, “scittering across the street,” as “horrifying.

Shriner was relieved when the driver appeared to  in good shape and no one else was hurt; but said he is still disturbed that a car nearly crashed into his living room. He thanked all the people who offered him well wishes and said he was glad he was not alone, but that his partner McGothlin was home during the incident.

Shriner and McGothlin stayed awake, when around 3:30 a.m. a police investigator came to survey the scene of the accident.

Later Tuesday morning, relatives of the woman came to clean up the debris in their yard, and Shriner described them as being very cordial. They also informed him that the woman only received minor injuries.

According to McGothlin, who works across the street from his home at McGothlin Real Estate, relatives were able to fill up a full pickup truck with shattered glass, pieces of the car, trees and fences. By late morning, the backyard looked clean, except for a few pieces of what appeared to be taillight strewn about.

An employee of Dominion Power arrived also after 11 a.m. to fix the power line.

Another person had also crashed into McGothlin and Shriner's yard Mar. 16 last year, although that vehicle barely got passed the fence.

Jason Shriner, who often makes cooking videos for his Aubergine Chef business, created a Youtube video documenting the event. It includes a personal account of the incident on location.

Bristow Beat and its sponsors are not responsible for the content of the video. While the creator has given his account of the event, police have not verified the account. 

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