Charges will be filed against the driver in a one-car crash Friday which launched a vehicle off the roadway and sent it down a steep embankment into a creek.

Rush Township Police Sergeant Duane Frederick said charges are pending against Miriam Arnold, 52, Mahanoy City.

A Schuylkill Communications dispatch indicated that several occupants were trapped inside a vehicle surrounded by water, bringing emergency responders from a wide area.

According Frederick, the sport utility vehicle with four occupants was heading eastbound on Route 54 near Holly Road, Barnesville, about 3 p.m. when the vehicle struck a rock embankment on the south side of the road, traveled back onto the road, again lost control and began to slide to the south. The vehicle then struck the guide rail, Frederick said, sheared off a telephone pole, flipped an unknown amount of times, and came to rest on its wheels in the creek.

The Dodge Durango ended up facing west in the center of frozen Pine Creek. The car broke through the ice. Temperatures at the time were in the single digits.

Fire personnel quickly extricated those hurt and lifted them up the hillside, where snow was extra deep, having been deposited there from highway plowing during the past several storms.

Frederick said the driver, Miriam Arnold, 52, Mahanoy City, and a passenger, Ronald Pugh, 42, Mahanoy City, were able to get out of the vehicle while two back-seat passengers were still inside.

A 14- and 12-year-old were taken to St Luke's Hospital - Miners Campus, Coaldale, with unknown injuries.

Route 54, Pine Creek Drive, was closed between Barnesville and Park Crest as responders worked the scene.

Hometown Fire Police Captain Merle Wertman, volunteer Tim Uhrie and others set up a traffic detour that directed westbound vehicles onto Holly Road to Fairview Street. Eastbound traffic was detoured on a combination of Fairview Street or Harmony Lane. At least one westbound tractor-trailer, too large for the narrow roads of the detour, waited for the scene to be cleared.

Responding were Hometown Fire Company, Hometown Fire Police, Tamaqua Fire Department, Tamaqua Community and Ryan Township ambulances, Ryan Township Emergency Rescue, Ryan Township Police, Tamaqua Rescue, and Mahanoy City Fire Department's Citizens Fire Company.

The investigation is continuing.