Man stops to track crashed Jeep: Quick action aids rescue
Published: November 5, 2005
Mike Conduff shrugs off the notion that he is a hero. He says he did what he thought anyone should do.
Early Friday morning, Conduff tracked down a Jeep Cherokee he saw swerve off S. Machias Road, plow through a field and over a bike trail, and plunge into the cold and rapid-flowing waters of the Pilchuck River.
“I didn’t save him or anything. I think anyone would have stopped. I just wanted to make sure he was OK,” the Snohomish plumber said.
Conduff was headed to a job in Lynnwood about 6:15 a.m. He had been following the Jeep for several miles when he saw the driver swerve. He honked his horn a couple of times, thinking the driver might have fallen asleep.
But the driver, a 32-year-old Snohomish man, careered off the road, over Centennial Trail and into the river just north of the trail parking lot.
Conduff turned around to find the Jeep and called police from his cell phone.
When he didn’t see the Jeep, he followed the tire tracks through thick brush and trees straight into the river.
“It was so dark, I couldn’t see him. I was yelling for him. I thought he might be drowning,” Conduff said. “I couldn’t find him. He’d floated down about 100 to 150 yards. The river was really moving.”
Conduff went back to the road, where he met a sheriff’s deputy who was responding to the call for help.
The Jeep was too far out for rescuers to reach the driver, and the river, swollen by heavy rains, was too rapid to send in divers.
At one point, the man was on top of the Jeep. Police encouraged him to go back inside as water neared the windows, while sheriff’s deputies and firefighters from Snohomish and Monroe launched rescue boats.
The Jeep “appeared to be stable where it was located. We didn’t want to risk someone being swept up under something,” Sgt. Danny Wickstrom said.
A rescuer watched upstream for floating debris that might strike the Jeep, and another was downstream with a rope to throw if anyone ended up in the river.
About 90 minutes later, rescuers with the sheriff’s marine patrol unit reached the man. He was pulled into a boat and taken to Providence Everett Medical Center’s Colby Campus. He was treated and released Friday afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said.
It appears that the man had a medical emergency while driving, Snohomish Fire Chief Mark Collins said.
“It’s unbelievably lucky the vehicle didn’t end up upside down in the water,” Wickstrom said.
A neighbor told Wickstrom the river is generally shallow in that area, but a few yards away there is a steep drop-off.
Conduff, who went on to work Friday morning, was just thankful he was in the right place at the time.
“There was nobody on the road. I’m glad I was behind him,” Conduff said. “I’m just glad he’s OK.”
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