Shock moment car drives off 650ft beach pier
A vehicle was driven off 14th Street Pier in Virginia Beach with the car and victims still missing.
A car drove off a beach fishing pier around sunrise, shocking an onlooker who captured footage of the disturbing moment.
The vehicle is seen moving on 14th Street Pier in Virginia Beach toward the ocean which is visible with the colors of dawn.
‘Is he going to drove off…’ someone is heard saying in the video recorded by a bystander.
‘Oh my god.’
The rear lights of the car flash as it nears the edge without stopping.
‘No f***ing way,’ a person is heard saying.
As the vehicle goes off the edge of the pier and into the water, someone says, ‘dude no’, and gasps.
Virginia Beach Emergency Communications and Citizen Services got calls reporting the incident on 14th Street shortly before 7am on Saturday.
Police and fire department responders arrived at the scene to find the car completely submerged in the Atlantic Ocean.
Due to dangerous water conditions and poor visibility, divers could not be deployed, stated the city of Virginia Beach. The vehicle was located on the floor of the ocean using sonar technology.
Professional salvage divers tried to recover the vehicle around 1pm on Sunday but adverse water conditions made the barge unstable and created safety concerns. It forced the recovery operation to be postponed.
The number and identity of occupants in the vehicle are still not known.
A timeline for another recovery attempt was still being devised by the police department and contracted divers.
‘The goal of this mission is to safely retrieve the vehicle, reunite all occupants with their loved ones, and maintain the integrity of all evidence,’ stated the city.
‘We would also like to express our profound condolences to the family of the deceased.
‘VBPD is working diligently to bring closure to their loved ones through our investigative and recovery process.’
The person who recorded the video was identified as Kaylynn Crawford, 16, by The Virginian-Pilot.
‘Once they sped up, I was like, “Oh no, he’s going to drive off the pier,”‘ she told the newspaper.
Manan Scholl, who operates a store on the pier, told WTKR: ‘My first reaction was I was feeling very surprised and then very sad.’
Anyone with information on the case is urged to contact the police department’s detective bureau.
It happened just over a week after a vehicle that appeared to be ditched by its driver rolled into the Hudson River in New York. The vehicle and driver were mysteriously missing.
Earlier this month, sonar was used find a vehicle with three people deceased in a retention pond in front of a shopping mall in Florida.
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