MEREDITH — Two Massachusetts women escaped serious injury when the car they were in careened off Pleasant Street and ended up submerged in about five feet of water in Lake Winnipesaukee Saturday evening.

According to Meredith police, a red Ford Focus driven by Jennifer McCarthy, 22, of 117 Dudley Rd., Billerica, Mass., was traveling west on Pleasant Street when she lost control of the vehicle and it hit the right-hand curb. McCarthy then apparently overcompensated, according to police, by turning left.

The car then hit and went over the left curb and down an embankment before sailing over the Meredith Yacht Club docks and landing in Meredith Bay.

McCarthy and a female passenger, whose name was not released because she is under 18, escaped the vehicle through the windows and swam ashore.

"We were washing dishes — we had just had dinner, when we heard a loud bump," said John Parry, who was at his mother's Helen Parry's house. "We looked out and saw the car was in the water."

It took firefighters and a local towing company about an hour Saturday to remove a vehicle that landed in about five feet of water in Lake Winnipesaukee in Meredith. The vehicle's driver and passenger were unhurt. Guay/Citizen photo (Vicky Guay/Citizen Photo) Click here to view Foster's prints for sale

Helen Parry's home is just across the street from where the car went into the lake, so Parry, his wife and mother called 911 and rushed outside to see if they could help.

"They both crawled out the windows," John Parry said.

He said when he saw the girls were out of the car, he encouraged them to swim ashore, where he and others helped pull them out and wrap them in blankets.

Parry said police and rescue personnel were there just as the women were being helped out of the water.

Off-duty Center Harbor Police Chief Mark Chase was one of the people who helped pull the women the safety, according to Meredith police.

Police said while the accident remains under investigation, it appears driver inexperience contributed.

Firefighters on Saturday worked to attach a cable to red Ford Focus that landed in about five feet of water in Lake Winnipesaukee in Meredith. The driver and passenger were unhurt. (Victoria Guay/Citizen Photo) Click here to view Foster's prints for sale

Meredith Deputy Fire Chief Andre Kloetz said the two women were unhurt, but cold and upset. He said emergency medical technicians checked both women at the scene and kept them warm until someone could bring them home.

He said he had just passed the area of accident on his way to Hart's Turkey Farm restaurant, where firefighters and their spouses were eating a meal in the spouses' honor.

He said the fire department does not typically conduct vehicle recovery, but must try and mitigate any safety or environmental concerns.

He said one diver first took a "live rescue sled" which floats, to where the vehicle submerged to see if there were any significant fuel, oil or other fluid leaks. There were none, but had there been, they would have put "booms" out to soak up any oil, Kloetz said.

Since the vehicle was in about five feet of water and firefighters could access it without having to dive, they helped Ludwick's towing remove the car.

Firefighters Tim Muller and Dan Leathers donned cold-water rescue suits and worked to attach a cable from a tow truck so the car could be pulled out.