Car nearly falls off Balboa ferry after lurching through barrier
A car crashed through a barrier on the Balboa Island ferry on Sunday evening and dangled from the back as the boat sailed in Newport Harbor.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s Harbor Patrol received a call at 6:15 p.m. that a Toyota Prius with a man inside was teetering off the ferry while it was traveling from Balboa Island to the Balboa Peninsula, said Harbor Patrol Sgt. D.J. Haldeman.
The man driving the Prius told the Harbor Patrol that the car lurched forward and crashed through the barrier, its front tires hanging off back of the vessel when the ferry began to move.
The Harbor Patrol tied the vehicle to another car on the ferry while operators sailed the boat back to its slip. A tow truck pulled the car back onto the ferry about an hour later.
No one was injured in the incident, authorities said.
—Hannah Fry