A car drove the length of a Virginia Beach fishing pier early Saturday morning before crashing through the rails at the end an into the ocean.
Virginia Beach police spokesman Jude Brenya told the Virginian-Pilot that investigators were working on the assumption that at least one person was inside the vehicle when it crashed through the gates and is now dead.
A teenager was out for a run with a friend just before 7 a.m. and recorded the car on the pier. Kaylynn Crawford, 16, told the Virginian-Pilot she heard the first crash — the car hitting the first gate blocking entrance to the pier — then the second crash through the second gate and started to record.
The car can be seen driving down the length of the pier. “Is he gonna drive of th the edge?” Crawford asks in the video. “No f****** way,” she says as the driver appears to brake before going over the edge.
“Once they sped up,” Crawford told the newspaper, “I was like, ‘Oh no, he’s going to drive off the pier.’ ”
Crawford called 911, and police arrived on the scene quickly.
The car “is at the bottom of the ocean,” Brenya said.
“We are still trying to collect the right assets to be able to recover the vehicle,” he said. “And it seems like we’re gonna have to rely on private companies. We might actually be recovering the vehicle either later today or (Sunday) at day break … The way it looks like is it might be most likely tomorrow due to some of the weather patterns and also the assets available today.”
Brenya said he didn’t know how deep the water is at the end of the pier, but the depth of course changes according to the tide. The car is not visible, he said.
Police have not sent divers down to investigated; instead they have used other technology.
Debbie Lou Hague, owner of Ocean Eddie’s restaurant at the base of the pier, said the pier is closed at this time of year and blocked by heavy metal gates, which the driver slammed through.
The restaurant is usually open for breakfast, even when the pier is closed. “Not today,” Hague said.
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[Featured image; Kaylynn Crawford]
