Crews spend hours recovering sunken car from Palisades

It only took a matter of seconds for the car to fall into the river at Palisades State Park, but it took crews three hours to get it back out again.

On Saturday, a 2015 Toyota Prius fell into the river after its owners left it in the wrong gear in the parking lot. The car rolled off a 100-foot cliff and landed into the water below.

Car falls into river at Palisades State Park

"We've never seen this before," Minnehaha County emergency manager Lynn DeYoung said.

Two towing companies, four search and rescue employees, eight Garretson fire fighters, two divers and a few state park employees worked Sunday afternoon to recover the sunken vehicle.

Divers went into the water and broke two side windows in order to tie a tow strap around the top part of the car. From there, they hooked the car to a cable from a crane tow truck on the bridge 100 feet above.

Photos posted to the Minnehaha County Emergency Management's Facebook page show the various stages of lifting the car from the river.

Nobody was hurt or inside the vehicle at the time it fell off the cliff. The vehicle was parked just west of the bridge and fell in on the west side of Split Rock Creek, according to the Minnehaha County Sheriff's Office.