WALES – Rescue divers popped the back hatch of a Ford Bronco submerged on a sandbar in Sabattus Pond on Sunday morning, freeing the body of Alan D. Johnson, 53, of 49 Autumn Lane, Lewiston.
Rescuers from the Maine Warden Service had located the vehicle resting on all four tires about 17 feet below the ice west of Marrs Point about 8 a.m. Sunday.
Then, district Game Wardens Phil Richter and Jeremy Ward went back in the frigid water to recover Johnson’s body.
They were prepared to break the glass windshields, when Ward tried the back gate of the vehicle and it popped open.
Johnson’s body was in that rear hatch. “That’s probably where the last of the air was,” said Richter.
Witnesses said Johnson was driving along the ice in the middle of the pond just after 3 p.m. Saturday when he drove directly into a pressure fracture.
One witness, a nearby ice fisherman, had jumped onto the back of the Bronco as it sank and attempted to break the glass.
Rescuers searched for almost two hours Saturday without locating the vehicle. Richter said the water was clouded by sediment.
“The best way to describe it is like coffee with cream,” he said. “You can’t see anything.”
The Warden Service was back on the ice at 7 a.m. Sunday and began dragging the open water in the pressure fracture with hooks and ropes. That’s how they located the vehicle.
Richter and Ward had brought the body to the surface at 9:30 a.m.
Just minutes later, rescuers’ eyes turned south as a snowmobile came up the middle of the pond, following the path the Bronco took Saturday.
The snowmobile driver saw rescue crews and swung around them and the pressure fracture, continuing north on the pond.
It’s frustrating for rescue crews, said Sgt. Chris Simmons of the Maine Warden Service.
“It’s not just this pond, but every pond and lake in Maine is the same right now,” he said. This winter has not been cold enough to offer consistently safe ice.
The best wardens can do is to put out a general warning to sportsmen.
“At some point, you’re just not able to legislate common sense,” Simmons said. “You can’t put up signs because the problem shifts. An area can be safe one day, and a problem the next. So, where can you start?”
State law requires the owner of any motor vehicle that becomes submerged or partially submerged in the state’s waters to immediately notify the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife of the event and the location of the vehicle. The owner of the vehicle is legally liable to remove the vehicle and pay any damages resulting from the submersion or removal.
The vehicle has to be removed within 30 days, or the same day it sinks if the water is a public drinking supply.
Often, getting a vehicle out from under the ice requires hiring a diver or two and using heavy duty tow trucks or a crane.
The cost can run into the thousands of dollars.
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