Efforts are underway to remove an older model Chevrolet Blazer that was discovered underwater off of the coast of Central Saanich.
According to the Central Saanich Police Department, they received a phone call from a bystander who noticed a vehicle completely underwater near Henderson Point at around 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 20.
CSPD Sgt. Paul Brailey told CHEK News that officers arrived and discovered a 2000 Chevrolet Blazer went down a recently constructed pathway that leads to the water at Henderson Point, near Thomson Cove. He said even though the vehicle was submerged, it was pretty easy to see from the pathway.
“It was pretty obvious,” Brailey said. “It was about 20 feet out and clearly submerged in water.”
Divers from the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue 31 Brentwood Bay eventually arrived on the scene with a hovercraft and searched the vehicle to determine if anyone was inside the vehicle.
“There was nobody in the car,” Brailey explained. “So, we started to investigate who it belonged to.”
CSPD determined that the vehicle belonged to a person who police had made contact with on Nov. 15 after they were discovered soaking wet and had been experiencing mental health-related issues.
“We didn’t really know anything about them at the time,” Brailey said. “But it turns out, the car belonged to them . . . they had basically driven down the pathway and driven the vehicle into the ocean.”
Brailey said the Blazer wasn’t stolen and the person was likely inside it when it entered the water.
“It takes quite a maneuver to get down there,” he said.
No fluids were seen leaking from the vehicle at the time when divers examined it and efforts to remove it are underway, according to Braiely, who said it could take some time because a barge needs to be brought in.
“It’s fairly isolated down there,” he said. “There is no dock for us to get a towtruck down there and pull it out.”
Brailey said the department won’t be charging the driver of the vehicle.
Nicholas Pescod
