Vehicle drives off Courtney Campbell

Divers remove a body from a car that was submerged off the Courtney Campbell Parkway. [Jack Rowland | Times]

TAMPA -- A 25-year-old man is dead this morning after driving off a service road next to the Courtney Campbell Parkway and into Old Tampa Bay about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, police said.

The car, a black four-door Toyota Avalon, was pulled from the water this morning after divers and a helicopter tried several times overnight to recover the car from the water, but were stymied by high winds, choppy water and low visibility, Tampa police Lt. Brian Dugan said.

Police tentatively identified the victim as a 25-year-old white male but have not released his name pending notification of his next of kin.

Witnesses told police they saw the driver speeding eastbound on the narrow, one-way service road that horseshoes back west under the hump of the Causeway. But the driver never slowed for the turn and smashed straight through a guard rail, launching the car into the water.

Police said the car floated about 400 feet south through the support pillars under the Causeway, where a dive team this morning found the mangled car and a truck towed it from the water. Investigators placed the body in a red bag and pulled it to shore.

Investigators have just started asking the victim's friends and family where he was on Wednesday evening, said police spokeswoman Laura McElroy.

-- Casey Cora, Stephanie Garry and Rebecca Catalanello, Times staff writers

Inset photo: Point of impact where the Toyota crashed through a guard rail before launching into the water. Click to Enlarge