A woman has died after the car she was driving veered off the side of the Disraeli Bridge in Winnipeg on Wednesday afternoon, landing on the riverbank below.

Emergency crews found the vehicle on the bank of the Red River after the incident happened around 2:30 p.m. CT. The woman was extricated from the car and taken to Health Sciences Centre in unstable condition.

Police announced late Wednesday night that the woman has succumbed to her injuries. They did not release her name.

Fire district chief Murray Fordham said the woman was driving southbound when the car slipped on the icy road. The vehicle smashed through a guard rail.

Crews stand on and below the bridge after the vehicle veered over the side of the span around 2:30 p.m. (Submitted by Larry Leask)

"There was a car that came off the side of the bridge on the west side, southbound bridge, and landed on its roof basically on the shoreline of the river," Fordham told CBC News.

"There was the driver in there, the only person in the vehicle, and we basically had to use the Jaws of Life to get her out."

Blaine Stead said he was driving on the bridge when he saw the car lose control.

"I was going up over the bridge towards downtown, and I noticed in the rear-view mirror a car … started to fishtail and then it got into the railing and it was gone over the side," he said.

Stead said everything happened so quickly that he could not even tell what kind of vehicle was involved.

Water rescue crews were called to the crash site, but they were not needed because the vehicle had landed upside down and did not go into the water.