I checked into service for the graveyard shift at 2130 hours and start for the office and briefing. Its 8 miles away and normally a 10-15 minute trip. Briefing is at 2200 hours.
So Im cruising eastbound on the freeway and just ready to take the exit when the emergency call tone goes off on the radio. Dispatch says: Unknown injury accident Fernan Lake Road ¼ mile past the village vehicle totally submerged at least one victim in the water. Witnesses on scene, 2145 hours.
I light up and respond. There is no doubt who will be first on scene as Im only 3 miles out. Im on scene at 2147 hours only half stripped down so I spend a couple of minutes getting out of my uniform and boots. At 2152 Im ready to hit the water but cant. I have to wait for fire to arrive and rig a ladder or ropes to get down the 20 vertical bank to the water.
The second diver is on scene at 2154hours and yells hit the water but I still cant. During this time I interview the two witnesses that watched the vehicle go in and see one victim swim into the lake. Finally at 2158 hours fire gets me down and Im wet by 2200 hours.
The witnesses pointed to the location of the vehicle but I cant find it. I surface and yell, Where is it? They point to the direction where Im at. I look again and still cant find it. There is no evidence at all on the road indicating a vehicle had gone in so we are relying on their statements.
My teammate went about a hundred yards farther down the lake to start searching. After 30 flippin minutes we find it. Upside down, all windows blown out or open, a child seat in the back but nobody inside. The witnesses were off by one full corner.
The poor firemen had a full-blown rope system set up and had to redo the entire system to get us up and down the bank at the right area.
By 2215 we have 5 divers on scene. Three couldnt respond as one is away at school, one is sick, and the other one has had tea meany martunies (were human).
We remain on scene diving tight patterns, as vis is 1 at the very best, for three hours prior to calling it. We will resume searching at 0630.
We ran the plate and contacted the registered owner. She said that there was a fight and the male half had taken her car and was going to go get drunk. Well, we dont know if he did or didnt yet but one thing for sure, he was hauling butt and never hit the brakes or even attempted to make the corner.
Ill post more as it comes in later.
You guys and gals on the slower teams want some action come on up and play. This isnt even our busy time of the year for dives.
This will give you an idea of how well we work with the fire departments.
3 different departments showed up at the scene. One rigged ropes and took on the diver assist duties including having liquids; blanks, chairs and air hoses run to fill tanks. They can fill us right at the waters edge without taking our tanks off if we need to. That crew is assigned to assist us and nothing else. They apologized for not having the truck topped off so we only got 2800# fills.
Another crew handles anything medical related. We had 5 divers and at least one victim. There were 6streatchers, backboards or gurneys ready to go and all lined up with O2 at each one. One ambulance, which comes out of the firehouses, was dedicated for the divers only. The other couple were to be used as needed.
The third crew were gophers. One went with a marine Deputy in a boat to help crew and surface search. Two were assigned to keep hands on us going up and down the ladder. The rest were tending lines for the down divers.
When we were securing we were all just BSing when I mentioned that some of the other teams around the country think we need a better working relationship with our fire departments. They just started cracking up and one of the Captains said: How in the hell could anyone improve on this. Like I have said in the past our relationship is great.
Gary D.