

Codi Wilson, CP24.com





Police are working to recovery a vehicle submerged in Lake Ontario after witnesses say a motorist drove through a barrier and went into the water near a marina in Burlington.

Officers were called to the LaSalle Park marina, located near LaSalle Park Road and North Boulevard East, at around 8 p.m. after witnesses reported a vehicle in the water in the area.

“A vehicle was observed driving down the laneway toward the LaSalle Park marina. The vehicle drove through a barrier and through a sign and proceeded approximately 40 to 50 feet out into the lake where it became submerged under water,” a police spokesperson told reporters at the scene on Tuesday night.

Witnesses told officers that two people may have been inside the vehicle when it went into the water.

“Until we get the vehicle out of the lake we can’t confirm that but that is the information we are going on at this point,” the spokesperson said.

“This is a fairly fluid situation. Our priority right now is getting the vehicle out of the lake and making sure that… if there is anybody inside that those people are recovered.”

Dive teams have been called in to assist in the recovery.

The Halton Regional Police Service’s collision reconstruction unit is also on scene investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash.

“Those officers will be able to look at the scene start to finish and calculate all of that sort of information as part of their information,” the spokesperson added.

Witness says 2 men jumped into water to help

Trevor Wadham, who witnessed the collision, called the incident “troubling.”

“We were sitting in our car and we just heard two large crashes and then we heard somebody yell, 'Call 911.' When we got out of the car that is when we saw the car, kind of the hood area, was covered in water and it was going down and I could see the driver,” he said.

“He looked like he was in some kind of distress. It could have been panic. It could have been some kind of medical thing. He was an older gentleman. His arms were kind of locked at the steering wheel. The car was just going down.”

Wadham said he saw there was a female passenger in the front seat but he did not notice if anyone was in the back seat.

“There was two younger gentlemen there that jumped in trying to do what they could do but they said there was no visibility. They said there was a heavy buildup of seaweed and algae,” he added.

“People were kind of frantic to see what they could do but really there was nothing anyone could do.”