RCMP say foul play is not suspected after a man's body was found in a van submerged in a Cape Breton river Saturday.
The man has been identified as 57-year-old Ernest Daniel MacRae from Port Hawkesbury.
Police say MacRae was the lone occupant in the vehicle, which left the road near Cleveland, N.S., Friday evening. A passing motorist saw it sitting on a section of ice on the Lower River just after 5 p.m.
“They saw the vehicle sitting on the ice, and by the time they had turned around they saw the vehicle was now going under. Within seconds, it was completely underneath the water,” said St. Peters RCMP Cst. Jeff MacFarlane.
The RCMP underwater recovery team was called to the scene Friday evening, but ice conditions made it too dangerous to enter the water.
Early Saturday morning, the dive team was in the water looking for the van. The vehicle was removed from the river with the help of a crane.
“Once the vehicle was up here, we were able to determine there was one male occupant, a 57-year-old male from the Port Hawkesbury area, who was in the vehicle, seatbelted in, and was the sole occupant of the vehicle,” Cst. MacFarlane said.
Police don’t know how the vehicle ended up crossing the road and landing on the frozen river at the end of the bridge. Some local residents are puzzled, too.
“Whatever put him off the road there, it’s hard to say,” said local resident Neil Ferguson. “To come across the road, on a different side than he was travelling on, and go in that hole.”
Despite the tragedy, RCMP dive team members say they are relieved they were able to locate the vehicle.
“If we’re going to look here and we have to leave for whatever reason - whether it’s safety, because of conditions or we search the area and the body is not there - the hardest thing that we have to do is leave the area without a body,” said Cst. Darryn Sampson.
An autopsy will be carried out to determine the cause of death.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Dan MacIntosh
