Box Truck Driver Rescued From Mendocino County River After Ill-Advised Water Crossing Forces Him to the Roof of His Truck
Detour gone wrong: A box truck is partially submerged in the flooded Garcia River after veering off Windy Hollow Road north of Point Arena. Emergency responders, equipped with boats and other gear, work on the scene as a Coast Guard helicopter hovers above. (Photo: Caltrans District 1)
A box truck driver was rescued this morning after attempting to navigate a flooded roadway and ending up in the Garcia River north of Point Arena.
The incident was first reported over the scanner at about 6:50 a.m., with early scanner traffic incorrectly indicating that the vehicle had gone into the ocean near Fort Bragg. Emergency responders later located the crash site many miles south along Windy Hollow Road, where the driver had taken a detour due to the closure of Route 1 due to flooding at the Garcia River. His vehicle drifted off the road in the rising river.
As water levels continued to push higher, the driver managed to climb to the top of the stranded truck and wait in the rain for rescuers to arrive.
A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew was able to get the driver of a box truck to safety after the vehicle became submerged in the flooded Garcia River. Emergency personnel, including State Parks lifeguards and CHP, monitor the operation from the riverbank. (Photo: Caltrans District 1)
Emergency crews, including the U.S. Coast Guard, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, California Highway Patrol, and Caltrans, responded to the scene. Eventually, a Coast Guard helicopter safely rescued the driver.
State Route 1 flooded by the Garcia River this afternoon. [Image from Caltrans QuickMap]
Highway 1 is still closed at the Garcia River as of 3 p.m. today.
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iiiiidiot
Looking at the pictures of the river – I can’t even imagine how someone thought they could get across?
Maybe watched “Raiders of the Lost Ark” on the late show.
I’m glad he made it out. Maybe learned something.
Amazing – even with the water coming up when he buried it, the river had to have been blown out? He could have ditched it if the river wasn’t that bad earlier instead of getting pulled of the roof.
You keep referring to thoughts he might have had. You think that’s likely, given the evidence? Baseline mindset was the immortality of youth. Good lesson if gets it. That is, if he’s not a pallet short of a load. Took me a while.
I remember one the khum djs talking about a dead whale that washed ashore. In 24 hrs someone got a jeep stuck on top of it.
I agree. I just hope he has to pay for all the first responders that were there to get him out of the truck and river. Looks muddy like the Mississippi river.
“Wow I’ve never seen the road so flooded, I think I’ll drive my truck, shaped like a shoe box, right through it”
Yeah, and 25,000 tax dollars later—————-the truck is on its way to Japan.
I really like the good Samaritan who brought out his drift boat. Good job to the coasties
Maybe it was a GPS debacle? GPS doesn’t tell you: The main road is flooded and blown out so take this alternate route. It’s blown out too and it will be harder to find you.
You’re kidding, right? You don’t need AI or a GPS to know it’s been pouring for days up and down the coast and that stuff pouring down all day is water and if you can barely even SEE the other side if the river, maybe driving across is not gonna happen. Definitely a finalist for the Weekly Darwin Award, but the week is young. A strong early entry for the Annual Young and Bold GFL Championship.
No not kidding. There are all sorts of documented situations where people on the road went down alternate routes or were re-routed by GPS. Some perished in cold, snowy weather down some alternate route where no local would go under the conditions.
Look GPS shows this road… looks ok… lets go!
I think they should occasionally show roads that end going off cliffs or into mountain walls….helping us to thin out the population of morons….Morons so enraptured by technology and e-maps that they don’t know how to actually LOOK at the road in front of them. Do we really need to keep coddling and encouraging stupidity? Idiocracy is not just a movie…
I seem to remember Google Maps saying Bell Springs Rd was a good alternative when 101 was closed to a slide not too long ago. And more than a few people drove right on up that hill.
True. You have to actually look at the road. With your eyes! And use your brain!!! I know this is too much to expect from most people these days. We have dumbed down so hard that a complete IDIOT like this may appear of normal intelligence to many. And perhaps now he is. And…that is one of the main roots of our problems in modern America. We have normalized IDIOCY and STUPIDITY instead of calling it what it is…
Getting worse every day, but you have hit the nail on the head.
Interfering with Darwin is fraught with peril.
How stupid can anyone be??!!! The highway is closed due to flooding so he tries another road he found on his GPS and sees that its flooded. He tries to drive across anyway. Good candidate for a Darwin award…..
I hope he gets charged for the cost of the rescue effort.
So what was the important load that had to be delivered or picked up? Gotta know when to cease and desist!
Can I just say it? What an IDIOT!
If we’re making stuff up, I wonder how much pressure the driver was under to get his load delivered ASAP?
I’m glad he wasn’t hurt and hope he doesn’t lose his job. And I hope he learns this expensive lesson.
There has been no bridge across the Garcia River on Windy Hollow since maybe summer 1992. They used to do a temporary bridge in summer, but there was never a bridge in winter, anyway. The road is a dead end at the river bank. During flood stage that must have been unclear. Just water. I am sure there are “Dead End” and “No Outlet” type of signs all along Sleep Hollow, oops, I mean Windy Hollow.
Signs might be underwater.