One last good deed for the old home town: cycling past the casino, I saw a pickup truck in the Missouri. I stopped and yelled at a KCP&L guy sitting in his truck at the French Bottoms ramp: Do you have a phone? Call the police! Theres a pickup truck IN the river! He asked me, Are there people in it? I said, I dont know, let me go look. Call 911! I raced up onto the levee and saw one person swimming and at least one more still in the truck, which was floating but sinking. I waved to them and yelled HANG ON! and then zoomed back to the KCP&L guy and said At least two people, maybe three. I talked myself promptly out of any attempt to get them out of the river. I watched as the other people swam away from the truck, which was already almost to Roys Branch, and, when I heard the sirens approaching, I raced off down the bike path to meet any responders coming from that direction. I saw no one else until I got back down to Francis Street and the former casino landing. Several cop cars and ambulances raced around and a half-dozen plainclothes cops craned their necks from the waters edge as a boat picked up the swimmers. I rode up ringing my bike bell and kind of blathered at them about the truck and the trailer and the people in the water, but they were kind of blasé and didnt care that I was the person who first saw what was happening. I was going to ride back up and see the end but a TV crew was set up blocking the bridge at Blacksnake Creek. I asked a paramedic if they got them all out, but she didnt know. Then a guy walked up and told her that they got two out, but the third guy wouldnt get out of the water.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 18:06:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015