Rolling Meadows woman’s drowning death accidental

The death of a 64-year-old Rolling Meadows woman who drove her car into a pond on the Harper College campus has been ruled accidental by authorities.

Harper spokesman Phil Burdick said the Palatine Police Department’s accident reconstruction team found no evidence of mechanical problems with Victoria Auer’s 1999 Saturn at the time it plunged into the pond March 24.

The investigation also ruled out foul play, he said.

Auer had a blood-alcohol level of 0.173, according to a Cook County medical examiner’s office report. That’s more than twice the legal limit for driving.

The car was spotted in the shallow pond just past noon that day, with only the very top of its roof visible above the surface. The pond sits about 150 feet from any paved area of the college’s parking lot near the Euclid Avenue entrance.

In all, 13 divers and 22 firefighters from area fire departments assisted in the rescue and recovery effort.

Auer had taken continuing education classes at Harper in 1997 and 1998, but that was the last and only known connection between her and the Palatine community college.

Shortly after her death, one of Auer’s friends said the campus was along the route she took between her home and the location of her new job in Schaumburg. The friend added that Auer lost a couple of her closest friends in recent years, but had found herself a new group of companions.