SHINE — The search for a state Department of Transportation employee and his vehicle in Hood Canal was suspended Wednesday night but is scheduled to resume today.
A bridge maintenance technician’s personal vehicle, a Toyota pickup, is believed to have breached a pedestrian cable railing on the lower deck of the bridge while he left his work shift Monday evening.
The worker has not been identified at the request of his family, according to acting Secretary of Transportation Roger Millar.
After three days, searchers determined their sonar equipment was not powerful enough to scan the area that ranges from 320 feet to 360 feet deep, according to Claudia Bingham Baker, communications manager for the state Department of Transportation’s Olympic Region, on Thursday.
Sonar equipment borrowed from North Kitsap Fire & Rescue identified six locations for closer evaluation by the submersible rover, but none revealed a vehicle, Bingham Baker said.
New equipment from Global Diving and Salvage of Seattle will provide higher-resolution images and enable a larger scanning area, she said.
Bingham Baker said the search area will be redefined after studying the tidal patterns around the bridge.
She did not have a cost estimate for the operation but said “we are fully aware that we will need to release that information when the search is over.”
On Thursday, Millar sent out an agency-wide email that included a statement from the unidentified worker’s wife.
“We are very confident that the searchers are doing everything they can, and that they have exhausted all efforts using the equipment that’s been available to them,” she said, according to the email.
“We appreciate the support DOT is providing us, and we especially appreciate the frequency with which they’re keeping us informed.”
The woman said she could see why her husband enjoyed working as a member of the bridge crew.
“He loved life and was a jokester, but when it came to safety and work he was as serious as could be,” the emails quoted her as saying.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
