After 3:00pm today, January 6th, Ferndale Police were dispatched to a report of a vehicle stuck in a field after taking a corner too fast by VanderYacht Park. What was discovered was a bit more complicated.
As photo below shows, the dark blue Volkswagen Jetta passenger car did leave the roadway while heading south on Bass Drive near the southern end of the park. But, in doing so, struck rocks on the grass perimeter which appears, given the absence of tire tracks on the immediate other side of the rocks, to have sent the vehicle airborne for several feet. A large divot in the grass beyond the rocks could be an indicator of where the vehicle returned from its brief flight.
The tire racks continue across the pathway and through the grass indicating the vehicle made a U-turn and headed north in park along the walk path. It went only a few dozen yards before reaching the point where police found the vehicle abandoned. A police officer speculated engine failure due to damage sustained from driving over the rocks as a likely reason why the driver abandoned the vehicle there.
Police were investigating and had not located the driver at the time of this story.
