A driver passing over the S.C. 247 bridge into Greenville County spotted the white roof of what turned out to be a Chrysler Town & Country minivan, barely visible in the murky, fast-moving current, Friendship Fire Station Chief Mike Gambrell said. The minivan was more than 100 feet downstream from the bridge, near the Anderson County shoreline.

After Anderson County Emergency Rescue Team members inserted a cable through the windows and a wrecker with a winch slowly pulled it to shore near the bridge, Anderson County Sheriff’s deputies looked up its license plate number, which turned up in a database of stolen cars, Sgt. Mike Binninger said. The car was registered to a Greenville resident, he said.

"It’s at least the third time this has happened this year that I know of," he said. "We still treat it like an accident because you just don’t know."

Because of the extreme cold, a dive team was not sent into the water, he said.

Nearby resident Henry Norris said it was 34 degrees at his home a quarter mile away. He and his wife, Marian, staked out a spot on the bridge with a growing crowd of other onlookers as the morning passed, wondering if anyone was in the car.

He said in 80 years of living in the area he can recall no cars accidentally ending up in the river.

There was no indication at the scene that the car went over the bridge. It appeared instead to have been driven into the water from a rutted dirt path down to the bank on the Anderson County side. It may have then floated in the fast current to where it sank to the bottom in 6 to 7 feet of water, Sgt. Binninger said.

Kelly Davis can be reached at (864) 260-1277 or by email at davisk@IndependentMail.com.