UPDATE: Car removed from Lake Shore home pool

A suspected DUI driver made a splash at a Lake Shore-area home early Friday when his car went over an embankment and landed in a backyard pool.

The older-model Toyota was traveling south on Northwest 21st Avenue before it hopped the curb and landed in the pool at 2108 N.W. 84th Loop at 4:07 a.m., a Clark County Fire District 6 bulletin said.

Susan Cook has lived in the house for 12 years. She woke in the early morning to the sound of a car squealing. She heard a few bumps, followed by a few larger bumps and a big crash, she said.

Her husband, Jeff Goodwin, said the noise was like someone throwing a trash can down next to his bed.

“It was the loudest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said. When he peered out his bedroom window, he saw a man climbing over his fence and walking down the driveway.

Eric Brown, 23, of Battle Ground, was found soaked and walking along 21st Avenue by Fire District 6 firefighters. He was sent to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center.

Brown was cited on suspicion of DUI, hit and run and failure to transfer the title of a car, said Sgt. Fred Neiman, a sheriff’s office spokesman.

He was reportedly the only person in the car during the crash.

The car came to a rest on a pool slide and the pool’s cover, which held most of the car out of the water until it was removed later in the morning.

Goodwin hoped the crash wouldn’t cause the pool any serious problems. He had just changed the water out to get ready for the upcoming season, and thought he might have to work with hazardous materials experts to remove the new water, which was presumably mixed with gasoline and other substances from the car.

Cook was just glad no one else was seriously injured and that the car hit her pool instead of her home.

“Thank God he landed in our pool and didn’t hit a car somewhere,” she said.

As word of the incident spread, neighbors and journalists arrived to check out the scene. A few off-duty firefighters also returned to see what would happen with the car.

Scott Neilson, who lives a bit up the street from the crash, said he wasn’t surprised when he saw the crash on the morning news. Before the houses were there, he said, cars would sometimes go over the embankment and into a field.

Onlookers discussed how the car could have jumped the curb, gone down the embankment, hurdled a fence and landed in the pool while causing relatively little damage. Tire tracks were visible in some shrubbery, but a black metal fence remained standing with a few bent top posts. The car also scraped over a boiler in a pool house built into the hill.

Two 40-ton crane trucks from TLC Towing arrived sometime before 9 a.m. One parked in the driveway of a neighbor’s home, and the other perched at the top of the hill. Crews linked the pulley systems of the two cranes to hoist the car out. After several minutes of preparation, the car creaked out of its position and hovered a few feet above the water. Liquid flowed out from its crevices releasing a strong smell of gasoline.

Richard Lingle, retired fire chief from Clark County Fire District 11, worked with TLC Towing for four years and another tow company for 20 years before that. He said this was the first time he’s seen something like this.

“This is unbelievable,” he said looking over the scene.

He said his crew has extensive training and are experts with physics. In situations like this one, they have to engineer the best solution, he said.

“This is strictly figuring it out and doing what you can with what’s available,” he said.

Crews were careful not to cause any additional damage to the home or the neighbor’s driveway, Lingle said.

Lingle took photos and video of the removal, saying it will be used for future training.

Homeowner Cook was glad to have the car off her property.

Goodwin said the family plans to get the pool back in shape for the summer.

“This is where we live,” he said.

Paul Suarez: 360-735-4522; http://twitter.com/col_cops; paul.suarez@columbian.com.