Driver Missing After Car Crashes Into River

A 24-year-old Spokane man is missing after his car crashed into the Spokane River early Sunday morning.

Jason M. Tietz was not in the red Toyota Paseo that was found totally submerged near the Trent Street bridge between Division and Hamilton, according to Spokane Police.

Officers searched both banks of the river for nearly a mile downstream without finding Tietz.

Tietz was seen leaving a downtown tavern and getting into his car alone shortly before the accident, which occurred around 1 a.m., police said.

The car was traveling east when it failed to make a curve near Riverpoint Boulevard. Traveling at a high rate of speed, the car became airborne, hit a Washington Water Power light pole and went into the water. Officers found a 100-foot skid mark where Tietz had apparently braked before the crash.

A westbound driver narrowly avoided a head-on collision, police said.

When divers reached the car, the windows were broken out and there was no one inside. The car was pulled from the river and impounded.

This is the same place where two other cars went into the river - one accident resulting in a fatality, police said.