SEATTLE (AP) — A motorcyclist is presumed dead after hitting a car on the Interstate 90 bridge in Seattle and falling into Lake Washington Friday night.
Rescue teams called off their search around 2 a.m. Saturday, The Seattle Times reported.
The crash occurred about 11:30 p.m. Friday. State Patrol spokesperson Trooper Rick Johnson said the motorcyclist rode east on I-90 through the Mount Baker tunnel “at a high rate of speed,” weaving in and out of traffic.
On the floating bridge, the motorcyclist struck a Toyota in the right lane, then hit the barrier and went over into the water. Johnson says two people were in the Toyota, and they were not hurt.
“There’s not a chance of survival in that water over a certain period of time,” Trooper Rick Johnson. At that time, he said, the water would be roughly 50 degrees.
The Seattle Police Harbor Patrol and Mercer Island Police Marine Patrol sent divers into the lake, and the State Patrol flew a plane with a heat-sensing infrared system over the water. The divers and the plane couldn’t find the body or the motorcycle.
Authorities are unsure of the motorcyclist’s identity.
