A woman in Hackensack, New Jersey is lucky to have escaped from her Mercedes-Benz ML-Class uninjured after driving the SUV into the Hackensack River.

CCTV footage shows the woman at a hand car wash facility next to the river. Shortly after being directed where to park by one of the staff, the driver accidentally hit the accelerator rather than the brake. The Mercedes-Benz can be seen quickly accelerating, narrowly missing a fence and coin changer before plummeting into the river.

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Speaking with NJ, city police captain Nicole Foley says a 41-year-old man who witnessed the crash jumped into the river and helped the 64-year old driver and her 27-year-old passenger from the vehicle. The driver was taken to a nearby hospital for precautionary reasons while the 27-year-old declined medical care at the scene.

https://www.facebook.com/HackensackFire/posts/2557590714261299

Fortunately for the occupants, the SUV landed in a shallow area of the river and only the front half of the Mercedes was submerged under water. If the water was deeper, the SUV could have sunk and the driver and passenger may have had trouble getting out in time.

“There are no physical barricades in place to prevent vehicles from driving into the area that leads to where the car drove into the water,” Captain Nicole Foley said in a statement.

Incidents involving motorists mistaking the brake pedal for the throttle are all too common and often end in disaster. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case here.