Vancouver man, woman drown after SUV drives into Oregon river

SEASIDE, Ore. — A Vancouver man and woman have been identified as the occupants of an SUV that rolled into the Necanicum River in Seaside on Monday night.

Robert Weston MacNeil, 39, and Karen Irene Stevens, 26, were identified Wednesday afternoon by the Oregon State Medical Officer.

Seaside Police Lt. Dave Ham said the couple might have been lost and didn’t realize that the street on which they were driving — Oceanway Street — turned into a boat ramp leading directly into the river. There are no warning signs or lights indicating where the street ended and the boat ramp began.

Neal Wallace, Seaside public works and parks director, called the accident a “very sad thing,” admitted he didn’t have “a whole lot of answers yet.”

He said Tuesday that he would continue to examine the area because “last night, things went very wrong.”

Seaside Fire Division Chief Chris Dugan said the fire department was dispatched at 10:13 p.m. Monday, but when personnel arrived, they could not see the vehicle. A witness told a police dispatcher that he thought he could hear or see somebody trying to get out of the vehicle, Dugan said.

Because they couldn’t see any headlights or the car, emergency personnel didn’t attempt a rescue, Dugan said.

“The only way we could have done anything was if we were there when the car went into the river and we had the equipment to rescue them,” he said. “The only way they could have been saved is if they had saved themselves.

“There was nothing we could do at all,” Dugan said.

The river’s current and temperature posed problems for emergency personnel, who didn’t have the appropriate gear to attempt a rescue, he said.

“Without the right gear, we would’ve been doing a rescue on the person doing the rescue,” Dugan added.

The vehicle apparently went into the river and was pulled by a strong current about 20 feet to the north, Dugan said.

Although a dive team arrived shortly after it was called, emergency personnel debated at first whether to call the U.S. Coast Guard, Dugan said. Eventually, it was decided that the Guard might be able to light the scene with its helicopter.

While the Coast Guard helicopter searched for anyone in the river or around the water’s edge, the dive team recovered one victim’s body from the vehicle about an hour after arriving on the scene, Ham said. The second body was recovered about 45 minutes later, he said.

Ham said a person who called 911 from the Bridge Tender Tavern, south of the park, at first thought a boat was being launched and then realized a car had gone into the river.

Several people who contacted The Daily Astorian said they have seen cars drive east on Oceanway Street, only to stop short when they saw the river ahead of them.

“At the ramp there is a stop sign, nothing else, no “No Vehicles” sign, no “Boat Ramp” sign, nothing,” wrote Sandy Rea of Seaside.

“I did the same thing, without actually drowning, when first in Seaside 22 years ago,” she added. “It is logical, in the dark, to make a complete stop at a stop sign, then proceed forward, as I’m sure these folks also did. The only thing that kept my daughter and I from drowning at that time was having the headlights hit water, not more pavement.

“I braked frantically, and backed up, astonished that a boat ramp would be signed the same way an intersection is,” Rea said.

“There should be something like a heavy chain across the opening to the ramp, anything to prevent a car from entering. To my knowledge, there has been nothing like that, ever. And now, two innocent people have paid the sad price for the city’s thoughtlessness and lack of safety planning,” Rea added.

Others who contacted the newspaper said that it was clear that the road ended and that a boat ramp was ahead. The Necanicum is visible from the end of the road, they said.

Wallace said city officials are re-examining the signage at the ramp.

“It has been a tremendous eye-opener for us because there never seemed to be a problem there before,” he added. “Obviously, the city is rethinking the safety issues there. I don’t know what we’re going to do. We may look at more severe signage. We’ve got a stop sign and a park sign. We’re going to have to re-think more signs.”