Woman survives plunge off of Portland bridge

PORTLAND – A driver talking on a cell phone lost control of her sport utility vehicle, crashed through a guard rail on a downtown bridge and plunged into the Willamette River on Saturday.

The woman, Melisa Borgaard, 31, found a way out of the sinking vehicle and was rescued by a diver from the Portland Fire Bureau, said Officer Greg Pashley, spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau.

A man walking under the Morrison Bridge told KGW-TV that the accident sounded like an earthquake.

“When the car went underwater, I mean, it sank immediately,” said the witness, who did not provide his name.

“It was completely quiet for almost a whole minute, so we inevitably thought the worst. Then, all of a sudden, she popped up on her back and she just stayed there.”

Diver Rich Tyler was soon lowered into the water, where he was able to get Borgaard to a rescue boat.

“She was lying face-up in the water; she’d look up at me as I was swimming out there,” Tyler said. “Once I got there, she was very disoriented, didn’t quite know what had happened.”

Borgaard was transferred to an ambulance, which took her to Oregon Health and Science University for treatment of hypothermia and cuts to her face and hands.

Lt. Mike Shults of the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said the woman told detectives that she was talking on her cell phone to family members when the accident happened.

Lt. Don Beahm, who has worked for Portland Fire and Rescue for 27 years, said this is the first time he can remember a vehicle falling off a city bridge.

“That is a very big fall inside an automobile into a very cold bunch of water,” he said. “I think she was very lucky.”