West Shore RCMP responded to a crash at the Esquimalt Lagoon just after 12 a.m. early Wednesday to find the vehicle abandoned, with significant damage to its front end.
Cpl. Cory Bayda said the driver was located later that morning at his Langford home, some 10 kilometres away.
“He said he lost control of the vehicle and then left, went to his house,” said Bayda. The driver was charged with driving without due care. It was not clear whether alcohol was involved in the crash as he could not be tested at the scene.
Cathy O’Connor lives in the Esquimalt Lagoon area. She heard tires squealing just prior to the crash and went to check it out.
She took photos of the scene as emergency crews responded.
“The car had crashed with such force that it pushed a concrete barrier aside and proceeded to travel part way down the embankment towards the water,” she wrote in an e-mail to the Times Colonist. “A search of the tidal channel beneath the bridge had just begun. Emergency crews used special equipment to look for heat sources in and around the frigid water.”
Cpl. Bayda said the city of Colwood will do a structural assessment of the crash damage to the bridge.
