Boat, Trailer Break Loose, Creating Havoc On Bridge

A 19-foot runaway boat on a trailer plowed into two lanes of traffic, collided with four vehicles and flew over the side of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in a freak accident that seriously injured only one person.

The 39-year-old Gig Harbor, Wash., man, whose identity was not released, suffered back injuries and cuts. But he was released from Tacoma General Hospital hours after the accident Saturday morning.

“It’s kind of strange to see a boat come flying through the air at you,” said Dennis Level, 49, who was in his Ford Explorer with his two children when the accident occurred.

“It reminded me of the movie ‘Twister’ when you see the cow going through the air. Here, you saw the boat sailing through the air.”

A Chevrolet pickup driven by a 24-year-old Puyallup, Wash., man was towing the boat eastbound across the bridge when the trailer came loose from its hitch.

With the boat on it, the trailer barreled into the westbound lanes of bridge traffic and hit two cars.

That’s when the boat apparently became dislodged from the trailer and went up and over a Chevrolet Blazer sport utility vehicle.

Level, who was behind the Blazer, said he saw debris ahead and cars scattering and also heard tires screeching. Then he saw the boat.

“It was really kind of a helpless feeling,” Level said. “It was like a missile coming at me.”

The trailer hit his car, but the boat missed. It sailed over one other car before flying off the bridge and landing on the shore hundreds of feet below.

When Washington State Patrol trooper Joi Haner pulled up to the chaotic scene, there were no signs of the boat.

“After a while, (motorists) started pointing over the side, and you look over the side and there was the boat, way down at the bottom. It was completely destroyed,” Haner said. “It was like something out of a Hollywood script. We were just lucky that no one was killed.”

Tow crews had to link three 150-foot-long cables to raise the remains of the boat, a job which took 5-1/2 hours.