Park Service Reviews Plans To Remove Crashed Car From GW Parkway Embankment

ARLINGTON, VA — Two months after a man’s car careened two hundred feet off George Washington Parkway in Virginia, the National Park Service is developing a plan to remove the vehicle from an embankment next to the Potomac River.

Rescue personnel from three local jurisdictions worked in tandem on Jan. 3 to rescue the man who was trapped inside a four-door Acura sedan stuck on the embankment.

The man survived the crash and was transported from the scene to Virginia Hospital Center with non-critical injuries, according to the U.S. Park Police. He suffered a broken arm and leg, according to reports.

Police tape surrounds the car, which remains resting upside down. The driver’s papers and personal belongings are still scattered next to the car, which has graffiti painted on it.

The U.S. Park Police has jurisdiction over where the car crashed on the George Washington Parkway, which is operated by the National Park Service. The car is located a few hundred yards from the boundary with Arlington County.

A spokeswoman with the U.S. Park Police told Patch in January that it was her department's responsibility to remove the car from the embankment. The extraction will involve a crane, which will lift the car back up to the parkway, the spokeswoman said.

The driver's insurance company is responsible for the removal of the car from the embankment, the U.S. Park Police said in an email Sunday.

The National Park Service met with the insurance company and towing companies last Wednesday to help develop a plan for removing the car from the steep embankment. The removal will be scheduled after the National Park Service evaluates the presented plan, the Park Police said.

The guardrail in the median strip of the George Washington Parkway is mangled near the north end of the parkway’s Donaldson Run scenic overlook, where the car went over the side of the hill.

Arlington Fire & EMS and rescue personnel from the City of Alexandria Fire worked their way down the embankment to extricate the driver. They then lowered the patient down to the Potomac River, where a D.C. Fire and EMS Fireboat was waiting.

On Jan. 4, the day after the crash, a D.C. Fire and EMS Fireboat returned to the scene to pick up equipment and assess the stability of the car.

RELATED: 3 Jurisdictions Team Up To Rescue Trapped Driver On GW Parkway