The 23-year-old Kitchener, Ontario woman was not familiar with the area, and following her GPS while driving in Tobermory, missed a right turn and ended up going down a boat ramp, right into Georgian Bay, reports CBC News Canada.
Luckily, the woman was able to roll down her car’s window, and grabbing her purse, get out of the car before it sank. She had to swim about 30 meters (100 feet) in the 4.0 degree C (40 degrees F) water to get to shore. She then walked to a nearby hotel and had the police called to the scene.
Constable Katrina Rubinstein-Gilbert told the Toronto Sun, “How the launch works, it’s not an airborne thing. It’s not Dukes of Hazzard. It kind of goes off the road and the launch just drops all of a sudden.”
The constable also said driving conditions were rather difficult Thursday night, with the rain and fog making visibility limited. The woman was lucky that the car stayed afloat long enough for the unidentified woman to get out safely.
The car, a Toyota Yaris, sank completely, requiring the Rescue Coordination Center in Trenton, Ont., to issue a warning instructing boats to avoid the launch for fear of being damaged by the submerged vehicle. A tow truck pulled the car out of the bay Friday morning.
An onlooker, Andrea Vincze, told ABC News she watched as the vehicle was pulled out of the bay. She said the boat ramp was “pretty wide,” and could be easily mistaken for a street. Vincze’s husband, Zsolt, is a local diver and helped to pull the car out of the water.
As for the car, it landed a bit on its side when it sank and is not repairable. But thankfully, the woman was unhurt.
