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Two Powell police officers ventured out on top of the truck, while another got into the water to look for victims or survivors, said Chief Roy Eckerdt. A diver from the Powell Volunteer Fire Department later got in the water, too, and helped secure …
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For the second time in about a week, a driver went into the Garland Canal along Powell’s Coulter Avenue and emerged OK.
Emergency responders sprang into action shortly before 6 a.m. Thursday, after a city of Powell employee spotted a truck’s wheels sticking up out of the canal roughly across from Blair’s Market.
Two Powell police officers ventured out on top of the truck, while another got into the water to look for victims or survivors, said Chief Roy Eckerdt. A diver from the Powell Volunteer Fire Department later got in the water, too, and helped secure the vehicle for towing.
“You’ve got them (firefighters), you’ve got us, you’ve got EMS putting themselves at risk for somebody who’s not there,” Eckerdt said.
Authorities would later learn that 21-year-old Jeremiah Rudolph crashed into the canal about five hours earlier, got out and went to his motel room for the rest of the night, Eckerdt said.
The Gillette man told police he’d been driving back to Powell from Cody around 1 a.m. when he fell asleep and went off the highway, Eckerdt said.
Rudolph’s 2005 Chevrolet Silverado traveled about 230 feet on the grass bank alongside the highway and hit a city-owned tree before going into the water, police said. Rudolph then got out of the truck and went to the Best Choice Motel, where he’d been staying, Eckerdt said.
The Silverado later overturned in the canal’s current, leaving only its wheels and a part of the chassis visible. That’s what a city worker saw while sweeping Coulter Avenue around 5:52 a.m.
“Where the vehicle was sitting, it couldn’t be seen from the road, but that street sweeper sits high enough that he was able to see over the bank here,” Eckerdt said.
Police cited Rudolph for careless driving, failure to report a crash to police, property damage and driving with no valid auto insurance.
Rudolph was administered a breath test around 8 a.m. and registered a blood alcohol content level of .04 percent, Eckerdt said. A person is considered legally drunk at .08 percent.
Prior to a similar July 29 crash, police said it had been a long time since anyone went into the canal in town. The 34-year-old Powell man involved in the July incident is alleged to have been drunk when he crashed across from the Maverik gas station and store.
