Officials: Driver dies despite rescue effort after vehicle plunges into LI Sound

About a dozen first responders jumped into the Long Island Sound in Riverhead for what became a futile effort to save the driver of a vehicle that plunged into the water, authorities said.

The rescuers, without breathing gear or wet suits, pulled a man out of the vehicle not long after witnesses called 911 about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, said Chief Rod Richardson of the Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps. The man was pronounced dead at 8:09 p.m. at Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, Riverhead Town police said.

Police on Thursday said they were investigating the circumstances and did not release the name of the driver, 21, pending notification of family.

The man's red Honda Pilot plunged down a steep sand-and-gravel lane used by four-wheel-drive vehicles to get from a bluff at the end of Roanoke Avenue to the beach, witnesses told police.

"Witnesses reported that the vehicle drove down the beach access ramp at a high rate of speed, continued across the beach and entered the water," police said in a news release. Two witnesses dived in to try to save the driver.

Richardson and ambulance company EMT Capt. Andrej Ceckowski said they arrived to find the vehicle submerged about 75 feet from shore and the lights of another first responder's Jeep aimed at the Sound.

In the dim light, they spotted a Riverhead police officer, just her head and neck above the water, as she stood on top of the vehicle. They next saw another officer and an ambulance volunteer.

"There were officers on the roof, trying to gain access," Richardson said.

Throwing off his boots and radio belt, Ceckowski dived in, along with a handful of ambulance volunteers and four Riverhead firefighters.

They attached a winch line from the Jeep to the submerged vehicle, and first responders took turns diving to the vehicle and in the waters around it, their hands out to feel for victims, Ceckowski said. Others held onto the winch line like a "tether," waiting to relieve those who grew tired or had surfaced to take a breath.

"We took turns on and off going under to see if we could find any occupants," Ceckowski said. "It was just basically a touch-and-feel type thing until we found the one occupant, and then it was just more of getting him out as soon as we can."

Rescuers broke a window with a Halligan bar — a metal tool that can be used like an ax or pry bar — and pulled out the driver, authorities said.

Ceckowski said he and three rescuers carried the victim as they swam to shore. First responders put the driver on a baseboard and used a mechanical CPR machine in an attempt to revive him.

They then scrambled up the steep bluff to the ambulance, where medics tried to save the man on the way to the hospital, Ceckowski said.

"We were doing everything we could for this guy," said Ceckowski, who also was in the ambulance truck. "It was pretty quiet within the truck, and it was just going back and forth on what the next step would be to try to gain some kind of pulse on the patient. We never received a pulse back."

About 100 emergency responders took part in the air and water search, including the Coast Guard and Suffolk police, Riverhead fire chief Peter Jackman said.

Jackman said no one was injured during the search. Authorities concluded no one else had been in the vehicle, which was towed out just before 10 p.m., he said.

"We were pretty confident that was the only person that was there," Jackman said.

With Joan Gralla