No one hurt after unoccupied vehicle rolls into river

BONNERS FERRY — Officials said no one was hurt after a vehicle rolled into the Kootenai River at the public boat launch off Riverside Street last Thursday. The vehicle was unoccupied when the accident took place.

On Sept. 22, around 8 a.m., the Boundary County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a vehicle in the river at the public boat launch.

Bonners Ferry City Fire Department, Bonners Ferry police and Boundary County Sheriff’s Office personnel responded and quickly determined that the vehicle was unoccupied, Boundary County public information officer Andrew O’Neel said in a press release. The vehicle’s driver, a 64-year-old woman from Bonners Ferry, had parked on the boat ramp and was intending to allow her dog to play along the river.

After she exited the vehicle and let the dog out, the vehicle rolled down the ramp and into the water, O’Neel said. The current carried the vehicle downstream for approximately 160 feet where it sank in about 23 feet of water.

Members of the Boundary County Sheriff’s Dive Team dove to the vehicle to ensure that it was unoccupied and stable until additional recovery resources were available. Around 2 p.m., a team from Coeur d’Alene specializing in water recoveries arrived at the scene.

Divers attached inflatable devices to the vehicle that allowed the team to raise the vehicle to the surface where a boat was then able to pull the vehicle back to the ramp and pulled from the river by a tow truck, BCSO officials wrote.

During the incident, the river was monitored for signs of hazardous material releases, BCSO officials wrote. No significant releases were detected.