ashbridges bay car

Motorist sinks car in Lake Ontario after mistaking boat ramp for driveway

Someone made a very expensive navigational error in Toronto this weekend by driving a car down a boat launch, straight into Ashbridges Bay.

"The Queens Quay subway tunnel must have been closed," noted a witness who posted photos from the scene to Reddit, taking the words right out of everyone else's mouths.

Toronto Police say that a man and a woman made it safely out of a submerged Volskwagen on Saturday afternoon after the car's driver manoeuvred it into Lake Ontario via a boat ramp in Toronto's east end.

The driver thought that the public boat launch was a "driveway of some sort," according to police.

"My son and I were just coming out of the sailing club when we saw the woman outside of the vehicle in the water," wrote a Redditor with the handle olafthebent following the incident. 

"We pulled over and called 911 as did the guy in the car beside me," he continued. "The car was slowly floating into the channel before the Fire department got a rope on it and tried to drag it back to shore."

While nobody in the vehicle was injured, both police and witnesses say that the motorist was visibly distressed.

"Driver was uninjured but a bit hysterical at watching her car SLOWLY sink," wrote olafthebent. "Like REALLY slowly. It was floating for a good 10 minutes."

No word yet on how much damage the car sustained, but it's safe to say this mistake may have cost a bit more than driving into the Queens Quay streetcar tunnel

On a positive note, it looks like the TTC's measures to stop motorists from getting stuck on the tracks inside the Ferry Docks Terminal might actually be working. 

Lead photo by

olafthebent


Latest Videos



Latest Videos


Join the conversation Load comments

Latest in City

Doug Ford just got even tougher on Ontario bike lanes with new measures

Toronto's $27 billion Ontario Line just crossed its biggest construction milestone so far

Rare Canadian gold coin sells for over $1.5 million

Toronto ranked among the top 100 best cities in the world for 2025

A full list of all the items included in Canada's holiday GST cut

Liquid soap sold at stores across Canada recalled due to contamination

Canadians to get GST cut on groceries and new $250 rebate ahead of holidays

Snow is finally coming to southern Ontario and here's when it will hit