Snowplow strikes buried car in Tahoe, police find woman alive and well inside

RENO, Nev. – Police in Nevada found a 48-year-old woman inside a vehicle fully buried in snow this month after it was struck by a snowplow clearing the street. 

The woman was alive and well, according to South Lake Tahoe spokesman Chris Fiore, but her vehicle was completely buried and undetectable to the plow driver. 

The plow operator and police who responded to help dig the car out on Feb. 17 had no idea there was a person inside until they saw a hand pressed against the window, Fiore said. 

"With that much snow piled on top of the car ... if the snowplow hadn't hit the back of it we could be having a much different conversation," he said. "She could have suffocated." 

Police believe the woman was homeless and living in her car, according to Fiore. She told officers she had only been inside the car for a few hours. 

"Judge for yourself with the amount of snow on top of that car," Fiore said. "It could have been days that she was there." 

That morning, South Lake Tahoe was digging out in the waning hours of a multiday storm that dumped several feet of snow across the Tahoe Basin.  

Her car was illegally parked on the street, a chronic problem in South Lake Tahoe during winter. 

Fiore said that with each storm this winter, snow removal has been frequently slowed by cars parked in illegal places and then buried in snow. 

Any time a plow hits a buried car, police are called to do a report and then tow the car, according to South Lake Tahoe Police Department Lt. Shannon Laney. 

Laney, who has been with the South Lake Tahoe Police Department for nearly 20 years, said he has never seen anything like this incident. 

"It's a first for me, but we also haven't had storms that dump this much (snow) this fast either ... it's a unique winter for us," Laney said. 

Another storm is currently bearing down on the Tahoe Basin, rounding out what many expect to be a record February for snowfall around the lake.

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