Slick roads send 2 UA students down 200-foot embankment

The van's driver, Nathaniel Snowdy, and Fawnia James, both 18, were heading southbound on Mount Lemmon Highway when the power steering and brakes went out on Snowdy's 1992 Chevy Astrovan at a turn near milepost 12.5, said Sgt. Brad Foust, a Pima County Sheriff's Department spokesman. The van slipped on loose snow as it tried to make the turn at about 8:20 p.m., then plowed through a snow bank before rolling 200 feet into a barricaded area, Foust said.

Last week, the area received 23 feet of snow, making the mountain road wet and slick, he said.

Foust said a vehicle driving past the barricaded area heard a woman screaming, and a sheriff's deputy also heard people calling for help.

The deputy assumed the voices were stranded hikers and called the Pima County Search and Rescue team after he was unable to locate the direction of the pleas, Foust said.

Foust said rescue crews located the two students about 10 p.m. The students were mildly hypothermic and bruised.

Snowdy told police he had lost power in the van while driving down the mountain, but continued until the power loss made the brakes and steering inoperable, Foust said.

Both students were taken to Tucson Medical Center, treated and released Monday.