Truck driver rescued from water
Sam Wilson | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 8 years, 10 months AGO
An Evergreen man was saved by the quick actions of a neighbor Monday afternoon after his truck rolled down a bank at the edge of a mobile-home park and pinned him underwater.
Mark Getty said he was putting up a fence in his yard when he heard a loud splash from across the road at Forest River mobile home park. He and a neighbor ran across the road, where a white pickup truck was on its side, partially submerged in the stream that runs along the eastern side of the mobile-home park.
“His head was just barely above the water,” Getty said. “On the passenger side, the door was open part of the way, I got in and held his head up.”
Getty, 54, a retired truck driver and former scuba diver who currently works as a cook, said he tried to avoid moving the man as much as possible in case he had suffered a spinal injury.
Emergency responders from Evergreen Fire and Rescue arrived on the scene and pulled the man out.
“That’s all I could do — I was just praying they would get here soon, because I couldn’t hold him much longer,” Getty said, adding, “If me and my neighbor hadn’t been there, they’d be trying to resuscitate him right now.”
Montana Highway Patrol officers determined the man, Toby Webber, apparently had been drinking prior to driving his truck off the road and into the water.
Trooper Jason Fredenberg said Webber did not appear to have sustained any injuries.
By early Monday evening, Webber was still in the hospital. Fredenberg said he would be charged with driving under the influence.
Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.
MORE IMPORTED STORIES

Kentucky flood victims tell anguished tales of loss, grief
Coeur d'Alene Press | Updated 9 years, 10 months ago
ARTICLES BY SAM WILSON
Filmmakers fined $5,950 for bull trout violations
The owners of a Missoula-based film company were recently issued 38 state and 11 federal citations for violating bull trout regulations and filming illegally in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
Hatchery objects to Creston bottling plant
In a formal objection filed earlier this month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service challenged the Montana Department of Natural Resources’ determination that a proposed water bottling plant in Creston would not adversely affect the nearby fish hatchery.
Panel opposes shooting-range plan
At a packed hearing Thursday night to consider a proposed shooting range near Echo Lake, the Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee voted unanimously in opposition to the proposal after local residents criticized its potential safety, noise and environmental impacts.