(video added 4:47 am, wrecked Porsche after it was pulled out of water and up over seawall)
ORIGINAL 2:32 AM REPORT: “Water rescue” call right now in the 1100 block of Harbor Alki Avenue. Here’s what we are hearing on the scanner: Somebody drove into the water and his car — a Porsche Carrera, unless what we are hearing on the scanner is a joke — is about six feet under; divers are going in to make sure the driver’s alone, which is what he has told them. More as we get it. 2:37 AM UPDATE: Divers have confirmed nobody’s in the submerged car. 3:10 AM UPDATE: We’re at the scene – the car really is a Porsche and really is less than 10 yards offshore, underwater; it went over the seawall in the condo zone.
(video added later, best shot we could get of the car, submerged:)
The driver’s been taken to the hospital – the medic unit passed us as we were arriving here about 20 minutes ago (TV crews are here too). Police have reopened the road; City Light’s also here because the car took out a power pole before going over the wall. Now police are strategizing with a tow crew how they’re going to get the car out. 3:54 AM UPDATE: Two police divers are in the water, where they will attach cables from a bigger tow truck that’s come in; we’re with TV crews awaiting the big pullout attempt – might be about 10 more minutes. If you’re seeing this “live,” KIRO does news at 4:30 am so that may be the first place you see video. Lt. Ron Smith has spoken with us at the scene, by the way, and says the driver, in his 50s, was taken to Harborview Medical Center for observation, and will be tested for possible intoxication. (Added later, clip from Lt. Smith’s briefing:)
(this clip also added later) Seattle Fire Department spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen was at the scene for a while too — she explains what SFD rescuers saw and did upon arrival:
4:24 AM UPDATE: The mangled Porsche is out. We’re on our way back to upload video from HQ. 4:59 AM UPDATE: Adding clips, as promised. Atop this post, it’s the car right after pullout; here, the last haul up over the wall:
Also added a few clips in the middle. To fill in one of the blanks: The car was heading north/eastbound on Alki when it “went straight where there’s a curve,” as Lt. Smith put it. As for the driver’s condition, no formal word, but as SFD’s Vander Houwen said, he did NOT have “life-threatening injuries.”
10:28 AM UPDATE: SPDBlotter has summarized the incident briefly with a few additional details: The driver was 54 and is described as having ultimately determined to have been “uninjured”; the item says, “Investigators believe drugs and/or alcohol in addition to speed may have contributed to the collision” (pending test results). Plus, specifics on the car: A 1991 Porsche 911.
11:09 AM NOTE: A comment recalls a deadly crash in the area a few years ago. To be specific – according to this brief item from WSB’s first year – 2 people were killed in September 2006 when their car went into the water across from 1238 Alki, less than a block west of this morning’s crash site.
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