BELFAST – A Northport woman who fled after her car left Lower Congress Street, flipped over an embankment and landed on its roof in Little River has been charged with failing to report an accident and driving without a license.

Crystal W. Miner, 20, of Northport arrived at the police station a few hours after the Sunday afternoon accident to report that her 1998 Ford Escort had been stolen.

However, after speaking with Patrolman Bryan Cunningham she admitted that she was the driver.

“She did not file a false accident report, she confessed to being the driver,” Cunningham said Monday.

Cunningham said Miner told him her brakes failed and that she was unable to turn in time to prevent going over the embankment.

She said she called friends for a ride because she was driving without a license and she was afraid. She also removed the car’s license plates, he said. Cunningham said Miner had a learner’s permit but it had expired.

A woman who lived nearby saw four people on the side of the road shortly after she heard “an awful bang.”

When the woman passed by the area again, the people were gone and she noticed skid marks leading to the river. When she looked over the embankment, she saw the car in the river on its roof and notified police.

Cunningham determined that the car was registered to Miner from documents left at the scene. He said that when he contacted her at home she initially said her car had been stolen.

He asked her to come to the police station and fill out a report. When she arrived, she admitted she was the driver, he said.

The car is considered a total loss.