Investigation continues for car pulled from Allegheny River in Oakmont
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Oakmont police are trying to find out who owns an old model Pontiac Firebird — and how it got into the Allegheny River.
The submerged sports car was discovered upside down Tuesday afternoon by kayaker Ian Simmers, 13, of Verona.
Ian said he was out on the river with his stepfather when they saw a tire about 500 yards from the Oakmont Yacht Club. That led to the discovery of a vehicle on its roof covered in mud.
“It was definitely different than we would expect,” Ian said.
They notified emergency responders.
Oakmont police Chief Michael Ford said officers responded to the river shortly after 3 p.m., and a search was underway with the help of Oakmont firefighters and Blawnox Volunteer Fire Company’s river rescue team.
Rescue crews scoured the river on jet skis and other watercraft launched from the borough boat ramp off California Avenue.
The car was found within an hour.
Responders called in Monroeville fire department’s dive team to coordinate the car’s recovery.
Several yacht club members who stopped by the overlook said they have not seen anything like it in more than a dozen years.
Pontiac Firebirds were last produced for the 2002 model year.
Rescue teams used two Twilight Towing trucks to turn the car right side up and eventually pulled it to shore.
Crews cut down several trees and a portion of a steel fence to haul the car up a hillside in the Edgewater housing development.
Ian also had reported finding another vehicle about 200 yards from the first vehicle.
However, Ford said dive teams could only locate a pair of chairs in that area.
Pittsburgh’s River Rescue Unit, which operates out of a station along the Allegheny River near PNC Park, rarely responds to calls like the one in Oakmont.
“In the past three years as the assistant public information officer, I cannot recall the location of any vehicles located in the rivers within the city limits,” said police spokesman Maurice Matthews.
It happens “rarely, if at all,” he said.
Matthews said the river rescue unit responds to calls for bodies seen floating in the rivers.
He said those incidents are investigated by police and the cause and manner of death is determined by the Allegheny County Examiner. The find comes almost on the heels of another submerged vehicle discovery, this on in Westmoreland County.
A Chevrolet pickup truck that was pulled out of a reservoir at Bridgeport Dam earlier this month was reported stolen in 2004, according to Westmoreland County Park Police Chief Henry Fontana.
The truck was reported missing 18 years ago but neither state police nor the insurance company that had a policy on truck had any records still available on it.
The truck was found submerged around Aug. 11 by two men magnet fishing in the Mt. Pleasant Township reservoir, a multipurpose flood control dam on Jacob’s Creek near Double Bridge Road.
On Tuesday, Ford commended the young kayaker for spotting the car in the Allegheny, as well as all of the emergency responders.
“He did a very good job,” Ford said. “He interacted with us. All these gentlemen are out there on their own time.”
No injuries were reported, and no bodies were found in either vehicle.
“Thank God we called,” Ian said as rescue teams continued to work with the car. “We didn’t know what to expect.”
Tribune-Review Staff Writers Renatta Signorini and Tony LaRussa contributed.