Sheriff's deputies and game wardens responded and used the cellphone's GPS coordinates to locate the van about 175 feet from shore at 10 p.m.
How fast would they have had to been going? That's over half a football field from shore.
Once the water is above the floorboard I think ocean currents can rapidly drag a vehicle offshore. It happens in flash floods.
I suspect the lesson may be that once you can't see the road don't just slow down: stop entirely! Once every other year or so I get caught in fog or rain so thick that there is no speed I can travel at and still see far enough ahead to stop. So I pull over and let everyone else pass me.