The Alameda County coroner's bureau has identified a man who drowned after crashing his vehicle into the Oakland Estuary Saturday morning as Jeffrey Hardt, a 31-year-old resident of Oakland.
Around 7 a.m., firefighters were dispatched to a vehicle in the water near Nob Hill Foods on the 2500 block of Blanding Avenue where witnesses indicated that there might be as many as three people trapped inside the vehicle.
A rescue swimmer with the Alameda Fire Department performing a free dive without breathing equipment was able to locate the vehicle and retrieve one man, who died at Highland Hospital.
Water rescue teams from the San Francisco Fire Department and the Southern Marin Fire Protection District responded to the scene to search for additional victims. The United States Coast Guard also sent a helicopter and a rescue boat to the scene, according to firefighters.
The vehicle was removed from the water, but a dive team with the Alameda County Sheriff's Office continued the search as the Alameda Police Department investigated the incident.
A rescue swimmer with the Alameda Fire Department suffered a minor injury at the scene.
