Las Vegas firefighters rescue woman after car plunges 40 feet into downtown flood channel
Her car plowed through a fence and flew 60 feet before plunging into the flood wash, some 40 feet below.
Yet somehow the driver who crashed into the concrete channel behind the World Market Center on Monday morning was taken to the hospital with only cuts and bruises.
Las Vegas firefighters rescued the woman from the dry channel near Interstate 15 and Symphony Park Avenue. She was strapped to a stretcher and hoisted out of the wash with a pulley system hooked to a cherry picker.
Spokesman Tim Szymanski called it a "technical rescue."
Las Vegas police got a call at about 9:30 a.m. from the driver herself, who said she had crashed through a fence in the area. Police had difficulty locating her, but officer Bill Kearnes found the woman by having her describe a nearby billboard.
Police said she lost control of her car while driving on a private road off of Symphony Park Avenue. The private road, which runs parallel to the wash and Interstate 15, is usually blocked with an iron gate, but it was open at the time because of construction.
Kearnes said the woman was distraught but appeared otherwise unharmed. Police think her car landed on all four wheels; had it crashed into the channel at an angle, she may not have been so lucky, he said.
"She didn't want to go to the hospital," Kearnes said.
Police will determine the cause of the crash, but Kearnes said it doesn't appear drugs or alcohol were involved.
After the woman was loaded into an ambulance and taken away, Ewing Brothers Towing pulled her black BMW sedan up and out of the channel using a massive rig called a Rotator, capable of lifting up to 60 tons.
Contact reporter Kyle Potter at kpotter@reviewjournal .com or 702-383-0391.
