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Woman rescued after car plummets over bridge in downtown Portland

PORTLAND (AP) — A woman talking on her cell phone lost control of her car and crashed into the guardrail of a downtown Portland bridge, then plummeted into the Willamette River below, police said Saturday.
Thirty-one-year-old Melisa Borgaard somehow managed to get free from her car, which sank to the bottom of the river, and was rescued by a diver, said Lt. Mike Shults with the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.

"She took a chunk out of the bridge, took out the guardrail," Shults told KGW.com, the Web site of Portland's NBC affiliate.

The diver, Rich Tyler, said Borgaard seemed disoriented as he was swimming toward her.

"She was lying face-up in the water; she'd look up at me as I was swimming out there," Tyler recalled. "Once I got there, she didn't quite know what had happened."

Borgaard was taken to Oregon Health & Science University for treatment of hypothermia and other injuries, including cuts on her face and hands.

Shults said Borgaard told detectives she was talking on her cell phone to family members when she veered out of her lane and crashed into the guardrail.

Investigators are trying to figure out if she was speeding and exactly what caused her to lose control.

"That is a very big fall inside an automobile into a very cold bunch of water," said Lt. Don Beahm with Portland Fire and Rescue. "I think she was very lucky."