Divers Pull Man From Car After It Plunges Into Allegheny River
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The man who was pulled from his car after it plunged into the Allegheny River earlier this week died Saturday afternoon.
The Allegheny County medical examiner's office confirmed that 58-year-old Richard Smith, from West View, died around 1:30 p.m. Saturday at UPMC Mercy. The manner of death was determined to be drowning. It is not being investigated as a suspicious death.
River rescue teams pulled Smith from his car after it ended up submerged in the Allegheny River Thursday afternoon.
It was just before 7 p.m. Thursday when the Mercury Sedan was hauled out of the waters of the Allegheny River, just off of Railroad and 26th Streets in the Strip District.
Sonya Toler, a Pittsburgh Bureau of Police spokeswoman, told KDKA-TV's Ralph Iannotti, "We're not clear how he drove into the river, but we do know the driver did drive himself into the water."
Mercury Sedan removed from Allegheny River; divers earlier broke driver's side window to pull out unresponsive man pic.twitter.com/szKoAN1KuM
— Ralph Iannotti (@IannottiRalph) June 16, 2016
About three hours before the car was retrieved from the water, Smith was pulled unconscious from the submerged car. He was the only one in the car.
River rescue divers, who happened to be in training nearby, were on the scene within moments of the 911 call.
Steve Tracy, an eyewitness, said he couldn't believe how quickly the rescue crews were on the scene.
Tracy and his fiancée, Audrey Cope, were in their apartment not far from the scene at the time of the incident.
"We put on our shoes on as fast as we could, called 911," Cope said. "Steve slid down the embankment, but he couldn't go any further."
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When they were in the water, divers did as much as they could, as quickly as they could, to get to Smith. It took about two minutes to extricate him.
"Our river rescue divers had to break the window, and cut his safety belt in order to extract him from the car," said Toler. "They took him from the vehicle through the window and our paramedics then began CPR on him in order to revive him."