Im 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 cant seem to sleep all night and wont 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 its around 40 miles from home. 1/3 is freeway and the rest is deer infested 2-lane winding lake road.
0119 hours Im 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 Im thinking this is going to be a recovery. Its just way too far out. Even if we get there its 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.
Were 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 dont know a lot about how OnStar works but I know its a radio transmission so it shouldnt be working if its 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 cant get to the vehicle. They cant confirm if its 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 volunteers 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 arent something you want to be racing around in.
Now Im trying to relax so I can go back to sleep when I get home but some idiot in front of me just cant keep his vehicle in one traffic lane.
Now we are 5 but we cant make a stop. Sure we are in marked units and were 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 arent even the same colors. Damn, first time Ive 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 dAlene 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. Hes 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. Thats why Im 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 Im out of here.
Gary D.
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 its around 40 miles from home. 1/3 is freeway and the rest is deer infested 2-lane winding lake road.
0119 hours Im 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 Im thinking this is going to be a recovery. Its just way too far out. Even if we get there its 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.
Were 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 dont know a lot about how OnStar works but I know its a radio transmission so it shouldnt be working if its 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 cant get to the vehicle. They cant confirm if its 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 volunteers 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 arent something you want to be racing around in.
Now Im trying to relax so I can go back to sleep when I get home but some idiot in front of me just cant keep his vehicle in one traffic lane.
Now we are 5 but we cant make a stop. Sure we are in marked units and were 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 arent even the same colors. Damn, first time Ive 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 dAlene 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. Hes 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. Thats why Im 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 Im out of here.
Gary D.