ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A 57-year-old woman from Auburn, Indiana, was killed Thursday morning when a vehicle exited a downtown Ketchikan parking lot and plunged into Ketchikan Creek, striking pedestrians and injuring several people.
Ketchikan police said the vehicle left the Centennial Parking Lot through a parking space around 8:40 a.m. and broke through a fence before landing in the creek near the Good Fortune Restaurant at 4 Creek Street.
Two victims were taken by ambulance to PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center in critical condition, where one was later pronounced dead. Police identified the deceased as the Indiana woman. Two other patients, one local resident and one tourist, who jumped into the creek trying to rescue victims, were treated for injuries.
The local resident was identified as Dylan Self, who said he smashed the vehicle’s window with a rock, pulled the driver out and began CPR on the top of the car before emergency responders arrived. “I pulled her out and placed her on top of the roof of the car,” Self said. “I started doing CPR and that’s when a little bit of water came out and she started trying to get the water out herself.”
He said the car was filling with water as he worked to extract the driver. “I felt the car like shifting and I didn’t want it to go all the way underwater. It was kind of like stuck on the side, snagged on the side of the rocks,” Self explained. “As soon as I started pulling her up the car was filling up a little more, and it like slid down a little bit. Try to keep it above water as much as possible.”
Self later received staples for a deep cut on his arm sustained while breaking the glass.
Other bystanders who entered the creek were checked by medical personnel at the scene and released.
Ketchikan Fire Department deployed its swift-water rescue team to pull people from the creek.
By early afternoon, crews had removed the vehicle and blocked off nearby parking spaces as investigators worked at the scene. Ketchikan public works staff were replacing fencing near the creek, though parts of the Creek Street boardwalk remain closed.
Hamilton Gelhar works at nearby shop Fish Creek Alaska. He said Thursdays are typically Ketchikan’s busiest day for cruise ship passengers touring the area.
“We had 15,000 people docked on cruise ships today,” Gelhar said.
A press conference with Fire Chief Rick Hines and Police Chief Eric Mattson was held at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
“One of the bystanders, again, had cut his arm as he broke a window with a rock in an effort to remove the driver,” Mattson said during the conference. “The other bystander was a cruise ship passenger who jumped in the creek in an effort to also assist in removing the driver out of the vehicle.”
Hines said during the ambulance transport the driver “regained a spontaneous circulation. We call it ROSC. We got a pulse back and also the person started breathing on their own.”
City officials said the area around the damaged boardwalk will remain closed until engineers and contractors deem it safe. The Coast Guard and Department of Environmental Conservation were also monitoring the creek for debris and possible fuel contamination from the vehicle.
This is a developing story and we will update with more details as they become available.
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