Car veers off I-90 ramp, isn't found for 12 hours

A Washington State Patrol trooper searched unsuccessfully Friday night for a car that a motorist thought had plunged off an Interstate 90 offramp in Bellevue.

It wasn't until Saturday morning that another driver spotted the upside-down car poking above the waters of Mercer Slough, its young driver dead inside.

Firefighters dived into chest-deep water Saturday morning and removed the body of Mathew Durnwirth, a 19-year-old Kent-area man. Durnwirth was wearing a seat belt.

State Patrol Sgt. Chris Clark said the red Honda Civic dropped about 45 to 50 feet after it went over a concrete Jersey barrier on the Bellevue Way exit from the I-90 eastbound express lanes. He said the car had apparently floated 50 to 75 yards before coming to rest.

Clark said evidence suggested excessive speed was involved.

He said Durnwirth suffered massive head injuries, but that he doesn't know if there would have been a chance of saving him had he been found quickly.

Shortly after Clark briefed reporters, a witness to the accident pulled up to talk to state troopers.

Vu Hoang, a surgeon at Bellevue's Overlake Hospital Medical Center, said he was driving eastbound on I-90 when he saw a car on a ramp to his right, traveling "at a very fast speed with brake lights on. It was skidding sideways with the brake lights facing me."

"Then it disappeared," Hoang said.

Suspecting the car had gone over the edge, he immediately called 911 on his cellphone and reported what he'd seen. When he heard this morning that a car had been found and a body recovered, he went to the scene to tell the State Patrol what he knew.

Clark confirmed that the State Patrol had received Hoang's 10:42 p.m. call Friday night and had sent a trooper to look for a car somewhere below I-90 and Bellevue Way. The trooper reported back "UTL" -- unable to locate the vehicle.

"He made an effort, a very good effort, to locate the vehicle and was unable to find it. ... It was dark and the weather was probably not the best last night," Clark said.

He described the area as "a series of overpasses -- it's a maze here."

"It's one of those things," Clark said of the failed search. "It's unfortunate. We do the best we can when we get called out on these calls."

Nearly 12 hours after the crash, a Metro Transit supervisor spotted the wrecked car lying below the freeway in water and heavy brush.

The first state troopers and firefighters on the scene waded through water and mud before reaching the car several hundred yards from Bellevue Way, said State Trooper James Arnold.

Arnold said rescuers got stuck in the mud and had to push with their hands or with sticks to free themselves.

The victim's body was taken from the scene on a Mercer Island Fire Department boat.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com