None of the passengers of a pickup truck that fell through the ice on a frozen New Jersey river Sunday suffered any injuries.
However, New Jersey State Police said rescuers found a dead dog in the truck, which was submerged 100 feet under water, according to ABC News. The driver and a passenger of the vehicle later turned themselves into the police, uninjured.
The Toms River Police Department received a call around midnight about a truck driving on the frozen Toms River. When officers arrived on the scene, they said they saw a small pickup truck driving on the ice. They could see the headlights and brake lights from the shoreline, but as the truck went toward the far side of the river, the lights disappeared.
Firefighters from Toms River and Island Heights and New Jersey State Police and Coast Guard helicopter units began searching for the truck. They spent hours trying to find and recover the truck from the river, the Asbury Park Press reported. Toms River Police said they found the vehicle around 10:20 a.m.
State Police Sgt. First Class Gregory Williams said the dog, a boxer, was found dead inside the vehicle near Motor Road in Pine Beach. No human bodies were found in the truck. While rescuers examined the truck, about two dozen spectators gathered along the boardwalk in Pine Beach.
"In the '70s, cars used to go across all the time," said Chad Krean, 43, of Pine Beach. "You were a big shot if you made it to Seaside."
Toms River Police officer Ralph Stocco said driving across the river in the 1970s and early 1980s was a common practice.
