E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSNEWPORT, R.I. -- The bodies of three women were pulled Friday from a car at least partially submerged for hours in Newport Harbor after it plunged off a pier and landed on its roof, police said.
Newport police Capt. Fred Gonsalves told The Associated Press that the Hyundai Accent fell 6 to 10 feet into the harbor near the main building of the shipyard. The car, which had Rhode Island plates, was hauled out of 4 feet of water by a large crane around 8:30 a.m.
Gonsalves would not say if the women had been identified. He said authorities are still trying to determine what happened, though foul play was not suspected.
Newport police Capt. Russell Hayes told The Newport Daily News (site operates behind a pay wall) the driver apparently missed a right-hand turn.
"I'm not sure if they intended to take the turn here and missed it because it was dark and because of weather conditions," Hayes told the paper.
A dense fog advisory was in effect in Newport until 9 a.m.
Complete US News coverage on NBCNews.com
Vehicle may have been in water for several hours
Gonsalves said the car was discovered at around 6:30 a.m. Friday by a fuel deliveryman. He said it wasn't clear how long it had been in the water.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Ryan O'Hare told the AP earlier that it had been in the water for at least several hours. Newport Fire Department Deputy Chief Frank Young said firefighters wearing wetsuits and goggles discovered the women inside the car in the shallow water.
Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com
The shipyard is open 24 hours, and a security guard is posted at the entrance at all times.
A spokeswoman for the shipyard referred all questions to police.
More content from NBCNews.com:
- Snowstorm hits North Dakota, Minnesota, dropping up to 14 inches in some areas
- Lanai to become eco-lab that runs on solar, billionaire Ellison promises
- Up for grabs: the $300 million estate of reclusive heiress Huguette Clark
- Gray wolves probably real target of poisoned meat that killed dog
- Video: Could Border Patrol agent's death have been friendly fire?
Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
It seems so impossible that in only 4 feet of water all 3 would have died. Clearly an autopsy needs to be done.
Sad story.
4 feet of water is pretty high when you're upside down.
They could have been unconscious. They could have been drunk. They may have panicked. It's really not that unfathomable as to how it could have gone down.
I'm guessing, Anrkist, that you are right. They must have been unconscious. A person can drown in an inch of water. Just needs to be enough to cover the person's airways and they need to be immobilized enough that they can not move. If they were drunk at 6 am they were partying way too hard! I'd say the fog was the culprit in this one.
Yes it was the reincarnation of Kennedy, the old fart just wont stay dead.
Tragic but foggy weather is dangerous.These ladies may have been injured and couldn't get out.
Was there a Kennedy involved ?
These poor Women were working as crew of a yacht that was docked there. The fog was so heavy last night,visibility was maybe ten feet. Unless the security gaurd actually looked over the end of the dock,there was no way anyone would have seen the lights of this car.
I'm thinking they need a better security guard if he can't here a car crash upside down in the water.
Its a big shipyard, clarkiejoetoolbag, i mean bob. But sadly the yard will end up being sued and all that good stuff. Probably a bunch of drunken kids. It's Newport trust me, just as bad as the big city.
Jimmy Hoffa wasn't down there either, but they think bin Laden and Saddam hide there for a few weeks.
Was it a yacht or a cruise ship - if it was a cruise ship, they most likely couldn't read the street signs.
Humm east coast, water, car upside down, bridge, alcohol, accident, drowning? where were the Kennedy's can you account for the Kennedy's, three women was there a golf club in the car? how about some sleeping pills. who was driving?
I wonder if the crash woke the "security guard" up???
They could have been knocked out. There is a tide there. Newport is on the Atlantic Ocean. Who knows how high the tide gets? It was four feet high when they pulled them out. For all we know, that could have been low tide.
What an awful way to die... but if there was a dense fog advisory in the area, I can see how they might've missed the turn, not seen the water and drown in 3 feet...
Darkness/foggy conditions can be extremely disorienting. I feel for their families.
to usa1967,have you ever been a security guard?? its not the old man asleep in front of a tv all the time.i have had to disarm a idiot with a knife,been punched,kicked and verbally abused,not to mention having to deal with vomit and blood and all the paper work and investigation that goes along with it.so before any of you judge this security guard,try it sometime.oh and i was unarmed most of the time too.
I have read several post and not one has yet noticed the car landed on it's roof which would have at least partially caved in from impact, thereby jamming the doors and making easy escape nearly impossible. Even not counting for tide, four feet could have been more than adequate as many cars are less than four feet high plus the amount of compression into bottom. Water could have easily covered the entire car, causing drowning in mere minutes.
Yep. Physics do matter.
Kennedy again ?
Ted "the swimmer" Kennedy
How awful this has happened, and it took so long before anyone even realized something was wrong.What i really don't get is the senseless Kennedy humor connected to this whole tragic situation. Without knowing how many other lives are being affected by these deaths, if these women are all from the same family, friends or coworkers nor their ages.Guess as a society we have really changed when strangers tragic deaths becomes a source for humor.
Having worked many accidents I can vouch, this would have been an terrifying death. Chances are excellent the airbags would have deployed since the distance dropped would have caused the front end to likely strike the water first then flip over.If the driver wasn't wearing a seat belt, injuries can be sustained based on the distance the vehicle fell upside down,or force of impact, passengers striking other interior surfaces and each other. If the victims were wearing seat belts, being in the dark upside down would have been extremely disorientating.The car would have begun filling up within one to two minutes with the front heavier part sinking until it hit bottom and the trunk left higher and exposed. The electrical system would have shut down rapidly, preventing the doors well as the windows from working very rapidly. Without being able to break a window to escape, the women would have been trapped. If they unbuckled their seat belts, trying to find the door latches in the dark would have been problematic for the short time electricity might have been available. Most people don't think to open their doors immediately, instead panicking. Based on others who have survived similar accidents, it is an extremely difficult situation at best, with the lowest successful outcomes of any submerged vehicle accidents.My deepest prayers these victims loved ones will find strangth and peace in the coming days.
For those who might be interested in what to do, should they ever find themselves in such a situation someday, I recommend the following link http://www.wikihow.com/Escape-from-a-Sinking-Car, watch Rick and Dr Popsicle which shows specifically in real life how to escape such an accident the right way and wrong way.
Kennedy again ?
Kennedy again! I particularly liked him in cool hand luke. BTW hes not dead.
Just a thought, Even in dense fog, wouldn't the lights of the vehicle been seen by someone who is awake? Screaming from the car's passengers heard? Am I the only one who smells something fishy...
Unless they were unconscious. No screaming. You have a really good point about the security guard though. There must have been more than one way in to the shipyard.
3 women in a vehicle driving on a pier.. all unconcious.. I just don't buy it.. How did they get onto the pier to drive off of it? It isn't a common place to drive without some purpose I would think. Discovered at approx 6:30am... means they must have gone off the pier in the quiet wee hours... It must have broken a barrier or something for it to have flipped over.. unless of course they were going very slow and in that case, it seems to me that some further investigation needs to be done...
The article says there was a dense fog advisory in place so maybe they were driving and got all turned around and drove off the pier by accident flipping their car and rendering them unconscious. I'm being an arm chair detective there lol : ) I do agree they need to do a lot more investigation to see what really happened. They can't or shouldn't just assume and roll with it.
Melon - Woman driver, taking a long drive on a short Pier. Kinda self explanatory. Once the car flopped over the edge and went upside down, they were goners.If they drove over the edge that easy, think of how much trouble they would have had trying to figure out how to get out. Wonder if they were trying to text somebody to come get em. Might have even been using a GPS with a bad set of maps, possible....after all, back to my first thought. Woman driver...........
You don't scream when your head is under water fool! Anyone not seat belted in were most likely seriously hurt with an 8-10 foot drop upside down then add panic and you have the answer.
The fog can get so dense in Newport at times that you can barely see your hand in front of your face.
Kennedy Kennedy Kennedy, there are Kennedy's all over the east coast, but even when caught they walk, and you can't sue them because there money is in a trust like Romney has his and all the other rich people and the smart upper middle class, if you are not incorporated or in a trust you are a fool. but even that wont stand up against Obama, he will trash everyone but the rich.
Mindy and InRhode Island,We get Tule fog and it is so bad you can't see anything.All you can do is drive 5 miles an hour with your radio off and windows rolled down and hope that some drunk or fool is driving just as slow.It is scary to say the least.
Two thoughts:
1) If you have been in dense fog, you know that sound doesn't travel very far - ergo it is very likely no one would hear it.
2) We don't know how far from the entrance this took place (where the security guard was stationed. It has been mentioned that this is a large shipyard. So, again, with thick fog, no seeing the lights and no hearing the splash.
Think people before you post. Four feet of water at low tide may have been 16 feet at high tide. My question is, where was the security guard when these women drove in? Didn't he ask what they were doing there? It sounds like he wasn't at his post, and they may have been drunk and/or lost. Many of these GPS devices lead people to places that are not public streets. Maybe they were looking for a quiet place to do drugs. People don't realize that in the dark, water looks just like the dark sky until you are in it.
I agree, That's just what I said in my initial post.. How could they not be seen, or heard for that matter...
Very true about the water in darkness. I imagine that a pier (at some point) in a shipyard has sufficient water to dock a boat... so stands to reason the car was found at a portion (of said pier) located nearer to the shore line or parking area... on its roof..
Couldn't be the tide if they were found at 6:30am and were there for several hours. If of course several hours does not mean half a day.
The women were already on the site, they worked a Yacht Party earlier in the day. My guess is they got lost trying to find their way out of the huge shipyard.
On another note:
"Coast Guard Petty Officer Ryan O'Hare told the AP earlier that it had been in the water for at least several hours. Newport Fire Department Deputy Chief Frank Young said firefighters wearing wetsuits and goggles discovered the women inside the car in the shallow water".
Whew, it's a good thing they were wearing wetsuits and goggles!
How sad. Of all the ways to die, drowning is the worst for me. I can't imagine the terror they felt when reality changed.
I think a wood chipper would be way worse. Just thinking out loud...........
CG-I would guess thay were all unconscious, thus the trauma you fear was not realized, otherwise they should have be able to escape.
My beautiful cousin Martha was driving home from a charity event in Wash., D.C. last year. Her car struck a patch of black ice, slid off the road and down a small hillside. It landed nose-down but right-side-up in a cold, cold stream. She did not lose consciousness but she was unable to get out of the car. She used her cell phone to call 911. Rescuers responded rapidly, took her from the car - still conscious - wrapped her in thermal blankets and rushed her to a nearby hospital. She died an hour later of hypothermia.
I can't stop grieving for her because I just don't understand what happened. From the time her car slid off the road to the time the paramedics arrived was less than an hour. She never lost consciousness, she had no serious injuries - this was Wash., D.C. for heaven's sake! The best hospitals, the best response time, and yet - she died barely an hour after arriving at the hospital from hypothermia. I don't understand it; I will never understand it.
How do these things happen? Those 3 unfortunate women must have driven into a similar universe.
Condolences on your loss, and to the family of these ladies.
Thank you, Byron, very very much.
How the hell the coast guard pretty officer assume how long they being in the water.Only forensics can tell that after the autopsy.
Is this English?
a litto
that officer sure is pretty too
@Litto: Well, butchered english aside, it's called deductive reasoning.
The fog was very thick at 7am. I left my house and could hardly see visibility was only about 3 feet in front of my car.. For those of you asking were the security guard is, maybe he was doing rounds in the ship yard. These ship yards are noisy. There are lots of engine nose, pounding and such. The ships yards are not close to house due to the noise. I am sure even if they were screaming no one would have heard them. My heart goes out to their families.
With fog that bad, the guard wouldn't see squat either.
Well, possible, but without a back up at the gate, security is non-existent for the while he's gone, so why pretend you have security when you don't. And waste money doing it. The thieves on the docks will steal you blind if you leave a hole like that routinely. Guards that leave their post usually lock the gate, or get a back-up, in my experience.
They were texting on thier new iphones and got lost, then tried to use the GPS and it said, "turn here" and they went off the pier.
Then, upside down, they kept trying to call 911, as the water rose, but kept inputting 116. Do I have to think for everybody around here?
(P.S.- The security guard was sound asleep in his booth.)
Have to appreciate a sense of humor. I am sure some type of stupidity was involved. LOL
Fake and Gay
These three Women were part of a crew of a yacht that was docked in Newport. Last night the visibility was close to zero. The only way that security would have seen their car in the water was to look over the edge of the pier..
So, according to you, the security guard should have locked the gate and gone home since he could not see a car drive in. THE OPERATIVE WORD here is SECURITY! Still, that would have prevented this tragedy. We're not asking why he didn't see the car in the water1?! Driving past his guard house while cheated his empleer by sleeping on the job, resulting in the negligent death of three(probably).
Is it possible that the security guard was in the john when the car drove by?
hey, guys -
some shipyards are huge, and it is unlikely the guard would have visual over the whole area even if there were no dense fog. It is likely the guard is an "entrance guard. Dense fog might not allow you to see headlights a half-block away, and it mutes noise.
Might want to lay off the guard until something factual is reported
Three broads in a car drowning within 200 miles of Boston has to be Kennedy involvement!
Coverup I mean more on late night news.
Broads??? I'll bet you're a male pilgrim!
OK OK how about skirts ILO broads. Does that make you feel better?
T O G1
you can please all the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you will never satisfy anyone that has a broom stuck up their a$$ - you can quote me if you desire! LOL
Remember the "pointy heads in the pentagon with the PC policy!, hehehe
They probably followed their GPS right off the pier.......
Forensics ( I assume you mean a Pathologist) is very limited in determining DROWNING victims time of death. It is related to core body temps and decomposition among other things that submersion renders virtually impossible to read accurately. It was a bay, therefore tides are CONTINUOUS. The visual opinion of an experienced coastie (what in blue blazes is a "pretty" officer) may very well be as accurate as the pathologist with a guesstimate of serveral hours they get lots of experience along these lines. Of course, you are welcome to insist that no guess is good enough to be published AS AN ESTIMATE until the coroner gets the report ready for publishing next month. IF it was low tide when the car was discovered, it was definitely deeper when the car went in. A drop of ten feet( read the article above), and landing on the roof could VERY easily render the three unconscious, which is the only reasonble explaination for all three dying. Lost, on a pier, in heavy fog, you don't need a lot of conspiracy to have them end up in the water. BUT, where--%$&#@**% -- was the security guard? Preventing this tragedy (as well as preventing theft) is why this person has (should now be HAD) a job, as he/she/it is clearly incapable of doing the simple job: stay awake, and make sure only people who are supposed to be there are allowed in. If , as someone guessed above, there was another way in, then why were they wasting their money with a watchman on this way in (listed as "the entrance above")?
what is "serveral"?
They probably were drunk or something, coming from the party man! Lets party, they said, they probably had a suicide pack!
An explosive or poisonous charge? Maybe you meant a "pact". Spelling counts.
But what do I care about correcting common imbeciles?
There is that tough job market to think about.
Ah, I'll be alright.
And we thought Ted was dead!
Thornton Melon
3 women in a vehicle driving on a pier.. all unconcious.. I just don't buy it.. How did they get onto the pier to drive off of it?
are you UNCONSCIOUS? They were SUPPOSED ( that is theorized) to have been rendered unconscious as a result of the car plunging off the pier and landing on its roof, therefore hitting them ALL ON THE HEADS, thus explaining why none of the three escaped. There is no one moronic enough to believe and publish a theory that they were driving around unconscious!!! This may not not have been what happened at all, but it is a good first read until (unless) more is known.
Get a grip there Air Force. 75% of todays motorist are unconcious.
Yer right on, other guy,my bad. Remind me next time... I will not respond to trolls, I will not respond to trolls. Locally, it may well be closer to 85%.
They could have been zombies...just sayin
Actually, (if you read the previous post, perhaps you would realize that is the very same point I was making). It's fun to take things out of context though... good one ;)
I wonder if they were seatbelted in and could not get themselves free? It wasn't a long fall but the impact would have been startling, it was dark and I'm sure they were disoriented. As someone pointed out, it only takes an inch of water to drown a human and they were in 4 feet so......
After you have bashed your head and bent your neck to previously unknown angles you may find yourself temporarily unable to respond...
Did the Kennedy's move up there out of Mass. or maybe just visiting?
UH...Rhode Island is SOUTH of Mass. (No geography classes in your school(s)???) So if you are asking if the Kennedys (no apostrophe) moved 'up' there from Mass.-you are heading in the wrong direction!!!!
This is a terrible tragedy. Condolences to the girls' families. My husband and I live not too far from Newport and visit several times a year. I do know the area...but until I read more information, I am wracking my brain as to how they ended up the way they did. I always see a very high fence around the shipyard. They may be driven through some gates and just kept right on going. (?) I am also wondering if the yacht one of the girls was a crew member on was docked there or over the causeway on Goat Island?
"They
may bedriven through some gates and just kept right on going."Maybe is one word, not two. If you are going to correct someone else, don't show your own ignorance while doing so.
LOL!!! Midnightridr, maybe is one word but it is not incorrect to use the two separate words may and be together as in "I may be right" or "you may be wrong." Actually, you are definitely wrong. Maybe, (this is the correct usage), you will give this some thought before you jump in with your two cents about what is and what is not a word next time.
3 less Obama voters in the world. typical stupidity
Darn, you're a smart cookie, I missed the part of the story that said they left a note saying who they would be voting for. I bet Romney is proud to call YOU an American, you are one smart cookie!
What a horrible way to bite it. Car flips over lands on roof in four ft of water, crushes in the roof and occupants cannot escape. It's hard to imagine any scenario being any more horrible.
didn't Jessica Savitch die a similar death? I don't recall the details but I do remember the driver took a wrong turn and ended up in the water as well.
condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.
And this is what Washington D.C. has to say on the matter: "So what? There are more where he came from!"
Wow, what a tragic set of circumstances. Sincere condolences to the family and friends of the victims. If the car flipped, it would compress the roof and hold the doors closed. No way out unless you can break the windows and all get out before drowning.. Hard to escape even for even the most prepared. And 4 feet is enough to submerge the entire compartment. A fluke accident it sounds like.
Teddy's back.
I wonder what the storyline would be for an all-electric car.....
...won't go there...yet.
Upside down in four feet of water. Power windows not working. The full weight of your body in an upside down environment tugging at the seat belt now digging into your abdomen. Pretty difficult to extricate oneself in that situation especially if one is in a panicked state and not using their faculties to calmly figure out how to escape which is why I ALWAYS!! ALWAYS!!! carry a Police, Fire, and EMS Liner Lock Knife with a built in seat belt cutter and glass breaker on my person and in my car. There's nothing like having it and not needing it as opposed to needing it and not having it.
No disrespect intended but, I find most women don't think ahead like that. Maybe it's my military experience or maybe it's just instinctual but, no matter how much I try to impart this wisdom to my wife, it falls on deaf ears.
This woman does. I carry a seat belt cutter and glass breaker in my car secured where I can easily reach them should the need to do so arise. I have an innate fear of being trapped and/or choked or suffocated.
I don't drive anymore.