South Lake Tahoe city officials say a snow plow driver accidentally hit a buried car on February 17, and found a woman trapped inside.

"Once the woman put her hand on the glass and it startled them," Lieutenant for South Lake Tahoe David Stevenson says about the public works crews and police officers digging out the car. "And then everyone starting digging with a purpose.  They jumped in and really tried to get her out in a hurry because we didn't know what kind of state she was in or how long she'd been in the car."

The 48-year-old woman told police she had been in the car for 4-5 hours. Luckily, she was not seriously hurt.

"Frankly, if we didn't know the car was there, it's hard to say how this could've turned out," Public Works Director for South Lake Tahoe Ray Jarvis says.

He says it's possible the women could've frozen to death in car eventually, and if she would've turned on her car for an extended period, she could've died on carbon monoxide poisoning.

Jarvis says in his five and a half years of experience, he's only seen a car buried that had a person inside once.

That being said, public works and SLTPD get calls daily about cars illegally parked on the road so snow plows can't do their job.

Stevenson says no can can park on any street in the city when plows are working, to avoid situations like these.

Also, each car needs to get towed, which takes time and resources. Officers have to be on scene, and often times work has to be done before the tow truck gets involved.

"Public works has to show up in a loader," Stevenson says. "The loader has to dig the car out, then the tow truck has to tow the car out. so the delay is just..."

"Not only the delay but the threats to life, property, etc."

“We say this all the time, but it is so important to get cars out of snow removal areas and for everyone to be careful using vehicles during major snow events,” said Chris Fiore, Communications Manager, “Being inside of a buried car, or starting a car buried in snow could have deadly consequences.”

The City of South Lake Tahoe says several cars were buried under snow during this week's storm. 

“One of the biggest issues we’ve had this winter is illegally parked cars,” said Ray Jarvis, Public Works Director, “They don’t just delay the snow removal process they’re dangerous for everyone involved."