Video recovered after a car smashed through a guardrail and plunged into Lake Ontario late Thursday afternoon suggests the vehicle was travelling at a high rate of speed in the moments before impact.
In the video, the silver Toyota Corolla is captured heading north on Cherry Street at what appears to be much faster than its 50 km/h speed limit.
Other footage shows the vehicle smashing through the guardrail of the bridge over the shipping channel and splashing into the cold lake below seconds later.
Police previously said that the vehicle was heading north on Cherry Street shortly before 4 p.m. when it crossed the median, jumped the sidewalk on a bridge that spans the ship channel and smashed through the barrier.
Following the incident, a cyclist jumped into the water to try to assist but was unable to rescue the driver. The cyclist was subsequently taken to hospital for the treatment of hypothermia.
On Friday at about 9:30 a.m. body inside the vehicle was recovered by divers with the Toronto Police Marine Unit.
Investigators said they believed the vehicle stayed afloat for several minutes before it sank as many as ten metres onto the lake bed below.
The vehicle remained submerged until just before 11 a.m. and needed to be pulled from the frigid waters using a heavy tow truck parked on the bridge above.
The car was slowly winched up by a large tow truck sitting on the bridge. Meanwhile, a tug boat pushing a barge approached the car as it hung alongside the bridge.
Motor oil, coolant, lake water and other fluids poured back into the lake as the car hung suspended in the air.
The tug transported the damaged vehicle to another location so it could be inspected by police.
Police were later able to locate the submerged car on Thursday; however a body was not immediately found and recovery efforts were suspended at around 6:30 p.m. due to nightfall.
On Thursday night police described the search as a recovery effort rather than a rescue mission.
Police also said that they believe they know who was operating the vehicle at the time but will not be able to confirm their identity until recovering the body.
The cause of the crash, meanwhile, remains unknown with police expected to investigate a number of potential scenarios, including a medical episode, driver error, mechanical issues with the vehicle, possible driver impairment or potentially, a deliberate act.
