UPDATE: Man recovering after crashing car into Cedar Creek

MILFORD, Del - A Tuesday morning crash near Taylor Marine forced the closure of the northbound lane of Route 1 for about three hours. First responders say the car crash, turned water rescue, resulted in a person being rescued from the submerged black Chevy SUV. Delaware State Police say that person was a 60-year-old man from Millsboro. 

There was only one person in the car at the time of the crash. According to DelDOT, the crash was reported at 5:51 a.m. between Pine Haven Road and Argos Corner Road. According to DSP, the driver experienced a medical emergency and lost control of the car causing it to leave the road and drive in the center median. The car hit a culvert pipe and crashed into Cedar Creek with the driver trapped inside. The man was transported to Bayhealth for non-life threatening injuries.

Memorial Fire Company Chief, Kent Glasco, says the northbound lane starting at Pine Haven Road is now clear to traffic. The car was removed and the scene was cleared by about 8:15 a.m. according to the Chief. The cause for this crash is still unknown.

Chief Glasco says the call came in at a bad time of day. It was around 5:50 a.m. That's when Glasco says a lot of people are going to work, so it's tough to get volunteers out of their homes and onto the scene.

In Sussex County, while ambulances at the responding agencies are staffed 24/7, fire trucks are run primarily by volunteers. The closest fire companies to the crash site were Memorial Volunteer Fire Company, which is Slaughter Beach and Carlisle Fire Company, which is Milford.

According to dispatch, 9 minutes into the call there was still no response from firefighters aside from ambulances and one person from Memorial. A crew of 3 on a fire truck from Slaughter Beach left the station and headed there around 9 minutes after the car went into the water. 12 minutes into the call, the dispatcher says Milford's fire truck still hadn't responded.

Chief Glasco says both Carlisle and Memorial still had adequately staffed fire trucks and got there with enough time to help, but this response time is normal.

"We have people coming from home and they have to get up in the morning, get dressed, get out the door," Glasco says. "It's not uncommon to see fire departments 9 minutes, 12 minutes, 15 minutes, and that's when at 9 minutes I make the call to dispatch Milton as well."

Glasco says part of the wait is getting the number of people needed to show up, not just the closest fire trucks. For example, he says the dive teams are also volunteer and have to go to their respective fire halls first. In this case that was as far away as Laurel and Selbyville, which is a good 45 minute drive to Slaughter Beach.

Emergency crews and dive teams from Slaughter Beach Memorial Fire Company, Milton Fire Department, Milford's Carlisle Fire Company, Dagsboro, Laurel Fire Department, Millsboro Fire Company and Selbyville Volunteer Fire Company responded to the call.

This is not the first crash into the water at this stretch of road. Back in 2022, two teenagers lost their life after their car flipped into Cedar Creek. Milford neighbor Drew Cline told CoastTV that his son also had an accident on the same stretch of road.. and hopes something changes to improve safety.

"It's a shame and I'm glad that this had a positive outcome," he said. "But unfortunately, we see a lot of really bad accidents right here."

DSP continue to investigate the circumstances of the incident.