Woman in stolen vehicle survives plunge off Bay Bridge

KPIX-TV A woman crashed a stolen auto on the San Francisco Bay Bridge, climbed over the railings of a walkway and dropped 70 feet into the water, authorities say.

KNTV-TV reports (http://bit.ly/1MjXVY8 ) the incident started Wednesday when officers responded to a collision on Interstate Highway 80 on the Bay Bridge around 2 a.m.

Ahead of them, they saw three women walking in the bike lane and approached them. It isn’t clear whether or not they have been arrested.

“Our assumption is that she’s alive, and we’re looking for her to make sure she’s OK”, he said.

Authorities still do not know the woman’s whereabouts, Williams said.

One of the women began climbing onto the rail.

The trooper looked down to see the woman floating north out of sight in the early morning darkness.

“The officer requested a notification of the Coast Guard…”

The woman who fell into the water was the vehicle’s driver, Williams said.

The CHP hopes to find the woman, believed to live in the East Bay, to determine whether she was injured.

Later in the day reports surfaced showing her hitching a ride with a dump truck driver and that story was later confirmed when the driver walked into CHP headquarters to tell his story.

The vehicle was stolen from Los Angeles, he said.

The two other women were briefly detained and questioned, then released, Williams said.

CHP officers are still trying to track down the woman and are following up on the address listed on her recovered ID, but have not determined if she still lives there.

The California Highway Patrol, fire crews and the United States Coast Guard are involved in the search, according to the CHP.