Another driving training flunke gets us called out.

[Gary D.]

I’m sound and I mean sound asleep, dead to the world, out like a light. To disturb that restful period is a little black box that can’t seem to sleep all night and won’t let anyone else either. More of that Beep, Beep, Beep BS.

I get up grab it and while the toothbrush is doing its thing and the lid is lifted, I read the message. “ACCIDENT VEH IN WATER 97/NUTHATCH BETWEEN MP74 AND 75 0117am 7/16/05”. This is bad to begin with, as it’s around 40 miles from home. 1/3 is freeway and the rest is deer infested 2-lane winding lake road.

0119 hours I’m in the car lit up and checked into service. Two miles to the freeway where I have an 8-mile straight run before the mountains and then another 8 before the bad winding roads start.

On top of everything else going through my mind I’m thinking this is going to be a recovery. It’s just way too far out. Even if we get there it’s a 15-minute chopper flight if we can even find an L-Z for them. Not looking good for any victims.

Three of us hit the freeway in Post Falls at almost the same time. We know this is our only hope to make time so these three new Interceptors get the carbon blown out. That first 8 miles of freeway was covered in just over three minutes then we let them relax a little.

We’re still on the freeway and start climbing the mountains when dispatch says the RP is OnStar. They have at least one survivor and the vehicle is in the water. ????????? I don’t know a lot about how OnStar works but I know it’s a radio transmission so it shouldn’t be working if it’s submerged.

Now its mixed emotion speed up and risk a deer hit or keep it reasonable and protect Bambi. I remember the movie Bambi, and with a little tear in my eye slow down. Yeah right.

We make it to MP-88, still 13 miles out, when medical says they are on scene but can’t get to the vehicle. They can’t confirm if it’s in the water or not so we keep rolling.

We get to MP-82 when medical says they can see it and it missed the water by inches. Dive Team can cancel, time, 0138 hours.

At MP-81, only 6-miles or about 4 minutes away we shut them down find a wide spot and head home. 31-miles covered in 21 minutes from the time of the page.

When we got back to the freeway, I-90, the first fire/rescue unit was checking out on scene. Their station is only about 5 miles away, but by the time the volunteer’s get paged, dressed, respond to the station to get fired up and enroute a lot of time has passed. Not to mention all the problems driving those trucks over those tight winding roads. That is one reason our area will stay with a LEO team. We can cover a lot of ground real fast. Those trucks just aren’t something you want to be racing around in.

Now I’m trying to relax so I can go back to sleep when I get home but some idiot in front of me just can’t keep his vehicle in one traffic lane.

Now we are 5 but we can’t make a stop. Sure we are in marked units and we’re cops, but we just got out of bed. I have on a white T-shirt, orange swim trunks and one nice tennis shoe and one yard tennis shoe. They aren’t even the same colors. Damn, first time I’ve done that.

If the five of us got out of the cars on a traffic stop some one would run. I know I would and they would have a good reason to.

ISP has their two units headed for the accident. Coeur d’Alene City has a couple of domestics going on so our next hope is Post Falls.

Post Falls has a unit and they make the stop with the remaining three of us, dressed like clowns backing him up.

Our suspected drunk turns out to be mega-tired. He has driven straight through from central Minnesota and appreciated the wake up call. He lives in Washington less than 10 miles from where we stopped him. He’s awake now.

So I get home with one hour of over-time, 62 miles on the car and one fourth of my fuel load gone. Nice and relaxed, NOT. That’s why I’m sitting at this stupid computer at 3am on my day off.

Here is the sat pic.. It happened in this area on the right side of the bay.
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=11&Z=11&X=1284&Y=13148&W=1
Click on the third bar down on the zoom scale. We came from about 1 inch west of the white box. Long run.......

We have two kids, brother and sister, missing in that bay I would like to find someday. It's also where we had the plane vs boat accident earlier this year. That little square building at the very south end of the bay is the planes hanger.

I just yawned so I’m out of here.

Gary D.

 

[jonnythan]

I love reading your stories, Gary. Thanks for taking the time to post them.

 

[DennisW]

Gary,

I like hearing these too, but just the thought of you hitting a deer while heading to a scene scares the bejeezus out of me. It's a wonder we don't have troopers hit them regularly here in Virginia, but you don't hear about it unless someone is hurt. In the Fall, I see at least one deer per week on I-64 driving from Williamsburg to Hampton.

 

[Li'l38]

Wow- I always find your reports/posts interesting. You should consider a writing career after you retire. Never a dull moment around your neck of the woods? (except for when you're slowin' down for Bambi- love the sarcastic humor) Sounds like ya'll saved the day with that sleepy driver! In the right place at the right time (so to speak) You might wanna do something about those shoes... I mean, how unprofessional is that?! Just kidding, I can't imagine even remembering to put shoes on if I were to try waking up and getting out the door in... what was it... 2 minutes? How long those kids been missing? and the plane vs. boat thing? I'd like to read an article, if you have a link. Another important question here is...
What the heck are ya doin' up at 6:52 am on your day off?- editing your post? Good grief, you just got to sleep around 3am! Not to mention, you were deprived of a well deserved, restful sleep from the night before. Get some rest.. or next thing you know, you'll be goin' out the door without your shorts on!! Course, if that happened, you might get a vacation sounds like you might need one. Ever been diving in Florida for recreation? I'm sure the Florida Conch Divers would love to dive with you. Although, not sure how the citizens of Idaho would fare without ya- the place might fall apart! Congratulations on a job well done (saving that driver from falling asleep) sounds like 'someone was looking out for him.' More like a "devine intervention" - amazing don't ya think? I like hearing the stories with a happy ending, thanks for sharing. I know they aren't always that way. Once again, thank you for what you do- now GET SOME REST!!! ( That's an order! :11: ... I'm allowed, this is the internet, with all due respect, of course

 

[Gary D.]

We have a three hour time difference, I was in bed at 4.

Around 2 minutes to get into the car and enroute is about the average at night or from bed. Some of the new guys are so hyper they even beat that.

We are not fashion statements when we respond. Might be candidates for Americas Worst Dressed Cops, hehehe.

Deer are a big problem up here. It's not unusual to see twenty or thirty during a shift. Moose and Elk are all over as well except during hunting season. Bear seem to stroll into town a few times a year... The wild game around here is not very wild.

The brother and sister were on inner tubes and were run over by a speedboat around 30 years ago. I don’t remember exactly when and the location was never pinned down. I guess it was several hours before it was even reported.

The plane Vs boat happened this year and an attempt was made to cover it up. The pilot is in his 80’s, a retired FAA investigator and in deep poop. At the speeds the FEDs move he may not even be alive when they get him into court.

Vacation? I'm on it starting tomorrow. We have to go to San Diego for a few days. A bar report will follow.

Gary D.

 

[Gary D.]

Wobbles and I had to go to the south end of the county today for business. So we drove right by the accident site.

Holy Poo Batman. That man went for one wild ride over the embankment and 150’ down to the water. He was in the water but only a foot or so another 10’ it would have been a deep-water recovery.

The fire station is only four miles from the dive site. But by the time they get a crew together and a truck rolling we can beat them from 40 miles out. Sad but true facts in a remote area like this.

Had it not been for the OnStar alerting us he might have sat there and died. A boater might have seen him in the morning.



Gary D.

 

[Kriterian]

Had it not been for the OnStar alerting us he might have sat there and died. A boater might have seen him in the morning.

Gary D.

That would make an interesting OnStar commercial, like the ones I see on TV all the time.

OnStar: Hello this is Onstar, we've detected a front end collision, are you alright?
Victim: I think so, I was like...um, sleeping, yeah that's it, and I went into some damn lake.
OnStar: Ok sir, we're alerting the Ringling Brothers Swim Cop crew. They're on their way.
Victim: Hey wait, can't you send the firemen or something?
<sirens are heard in the background>

15 multicolored clad SRD's pour out of a Volkswagon Beetle...with a deer stuck to the front grill.


Thanks for another good story Gary. I'll be glad when we can hear some, "Day 14: Me and the wife are just chilling on the beach at the floating bar" stories.

 

[Li'l38]

Wobbles and I had to go to the south end of the county today for business. So we drove right by the accident site.

Holy Poo Batman. That man went for one wild ride over the embankment and 150’ down to the water. He was in the water but only a foot or so another 10’ it would have been a deep-water recovery.

The fire station is only four miles from the dive site. But by the time they get a crew together and a truck rolling we can beat them from 40 miles out. Sad but true facts in a remote area like this.

Had it not been for the OnStar alerting us he might have sat there and died. A boater might have seen him in the morning.



Gary D.

Someone must have been lookin' out for him too. 'Nuther case of bad situation with happy ending. Gary's having a decent send-off before his "bar vacation." Heck, that's a good enough reason to make a toast! Cheers...

 

[OBXDIVEGUY]

Your stories always intrigue me. The fact that you get called out so much blows me away. How many calls do you do in a year anyway? I live on an island with an ocean on one side, a sound on the other, and bridges and canals everywhere, and we don't even have a dive team. I've always thought it to be ironic that Idaho has one and we don't.

 

[Gary D.]

Your stories always intrigue me. The fact that you get called out so much blows me away. How many calls do you do in a year anyway? I live on an island with an ocean on one side, a sound on the other, and bridges and canals everywhere, and we don't even have a dive team. I've always thought it to be ironic that Idaho has one and we don't.

Hey Chris, that’s a good one. Hehehehehe

We had two real quiet years. 2002-2003 were almost nothing but training dives. A few calls but nothing to speak of. But it broke loose again in 2004 and hasn’t let up. We are just back to normal which involves 1-200 calls a year and getting wet for better than half of them.

Mix mountain lakes and rivers with Beer, Wine, Booze, Drugs and real stupid people and we need a real active dive team.

Our guys burn out because of too much activity. Most teams burn out because of inactivity but that’s not the case with us. It gets frustrating.

Gary D.