Even though there’s a crane in the water by Howard Brown Park, it does not mean the car in the Shetucket River is going to be removed immediately.

In June, a car was driven off a bridge in downtown Norwich, and landed in the Shetucket River near the fork. The driver was sent to the hospital for injuries, but the car has remained in the water since then. Now that a crane is in the harbor, officials need to wait for a day with slower currents, Taftville Volunteer Fire Department Chief Timothy Jencks said.

“I understand people want to get it out of there, but it’s going to be done correctly and safely,” he said.

Once the car is rigged, it will be lifted in minutes, Jencks said.

What conditions will make it safe for the Norwich Dive Team to work

The river outflow has been too fast for firefighters to dive into, due to rain up north flowing into the Quinnebaug River, and then the Shetucket River and Thames River. The Norwich Dive Team is monitoring the water discharge and is coming up with a safe plan, Jencks said.

“There are only so many dates that line up based on the tide charts,” he said.

When it’s time to raise the car, the dive team will have to break the windows on the car to get it secured. Once it’s secured, a barge will be able to pull it out of the water, Harbor Management Commission Chair Tucker Braddock said.

Jencks plans to meet with Terry Marine, the owner of the barge, they plan to use in order to coordinate the plan. The company is already at Howard Brown Park to install new docks.

Jencks is looking for a week of no rain and a well-timed slack tide. When the team makes the dive, it will only have a half-hour to rig the car for extraction. This may have to be performed in zero-visibility water, Jencks said.

As long as conditions aren’t icy, winter won’t get in the way of the dive,  Jencks said.

What attempts to remove the car have been made

The Norwich Dive Team went into the river on June 1, the same day the car went into the river, but wasn’t able to do much since the tide was high. Divers hooked a buoy to it, which can be seen from the shore, Braddock said.

“It’s no place to park a car,” he said.

What is the Norwich Dive Team

The Norwich Dive Team was founded in 2009. There had been a dive team in Norwich in the early 1980s until 2001 through Norwich Emergency Management, so the city already had some equipment when it was revived, Jencks said.

Additionally, the team had to replace some equipment as the new team began learning how to dive.

The team consists of Taftville and Yantic volunteer firefighters.

The team can be in the water for an hour at a time. The dive team can also send drones into the water instead of divers.  Since 2009, the dive team has performed water rescues and evidence recovery for several local police departments, Jencks said.

Many of the water rescues by the team are “low frequency, but high risk,” Jencks said.