Subject: [NEXTEL-1] On-Star Can You Hear Me Now?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2003 22:56:53 -0500

On-Star "Can You Hear Me Now?"
Doing their jobs; Shawnee Township police, firefighters plunged into
life-and-death struggle in icy pond
By L.M. AARON
419-993-2184
[email-masked]
12.08.2003

Those who plunged into a Shawnee Township pond Saturday night to rescue a man
and woman from a submerged car are (clockwise from top left) Shawnee Township
police officers Chris Miracle, Ted Falke and Shane Hartman and firefighters Bill
McCullough and Ryan Schott. Lima News Photo by SCOTT LASHINSKY.

SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP — When Shawnee Township policeman Ted Falke saw an elderly
woman looking out the passenger window of her Buick Century, which was quickly
sinking into a pond Saturday night, he dropped his gun belt, grabbed his
flashlight and jumped in.

Within 23 minutes of the Shawnee Township police and fire departments receiving
the 911 call, Falke and four other township employees had pulled Jean and Gordon
Misch from that car, which was submerged in a retaining pond on Bel-Aire Place
just east of Wonderlick Road.

The Misches, of Wapakoneta, were on their way to a friend’s home about 7:15 p.m.
Saturday when they passed the home by mistake. When Gordon Misch, 78, pulled
into a nearby driveway and reversed the car in order to turn around, he drove
too far back and the car slid into the pond that was only three feet away,
rescue officials said. Both were taken to St. Rita’s Medical Center, where Jean
Misch, 78, was released Sunday afternoon. Her husband died Saturday night.
“I’m not too aware of everything that happened, but I have to compliment them on
their efforts,” Jean Misch said from her home Sunday night. “They did an
excellent job getting me out of the car and they tried their best to save my
husband. He just didn’t make it. It’s one of those things that happens.”

The rescue

The 911 call, initiated by OnStar Corp., was made to the Allen County Sheriff’s
Office, which transferred the call to the township, according to officials.
Falke was the first person to arrive at the pond.

Falke said he saw the left front end of the car tilted above the surface of the
water, its driver’s side submerged, and Jean Misch looking through the passenger
window.

Falke said he dispatched his location to his station, took off his 25-pound
police belt and grabbed his flashlight.
“I took the belt off because I didn’t want any extra weight or any extra
equipment,” he said. “I took the flashlight so I could see because the car was
15 or 20 feet out in the water.”

Robert Maloney, who lives nearby, saw Falke’s patrol car lights, brought over a
ladder and offered to help. Without hesitation, both men jumped into the
ice-covered water.

“I used my flashlight to break the passenger window and I grabbed her,” Falke
said of Jean Misch. “She was aware enough to know that I would break the glass
because she covered her face. I tried to find her seatbelt, but every time I
did, she would go underwater. Then I yelled for a knife.”

That’s when Shawnee Township firefighters William McCullough and Ryan Schott
arrived in the Shawnee Medical Unit. When the firefighters saw the men in the
water, both ran in.

Schott said he swam next to Falke, grabbed the woman’s seatbelt, cut her loose,
pulled her to shore and loaded her onto the ambulance.

“Everybody else had a hard time getting to her seatbelt,” Schott said. “I just
grabbed it.”
After getting Jean Misch into the rescue unit, Shawnee Township police officers
Christopher Miracle and Shane Hartman arrived, as did Shawnee Fire Capt. Matt
Briggs. Seeing a fellow officer in the icy water, Miracle and Hartman followed
their instincts and jumped in. Briggs stayed with her.

“I saw Ted in the water and I could see a figure behind the driver’s side
window,” Miracle said.
McCullough got out of the pond and grabbed two bright-red cold-water submersion
suits for himself and Hartman. The suits, also known as Gumby suits because of
the their design, were developed by the Coast Guard to help rescuers stay
buoyant and warm in cold water. Buoyancy was about the only thing they were good
for that night and even that didn’t work in the rescuers’ favor.

“They were cumbersome and we couldn’t go into the vehicle,” McCullough said.
“Because of the buoyancy of the suits, one of us might have gotten stuck inside
the car near the roof.”

Since they couldn’t go in the car, the men had to quickly devise a method to get
Gordon Misch out.
Wearing the Gumby suits, with ropes tied to their waists, McCullough and Hartman
got back in the water and positioned themselves on the driver’s side of the car.
McCullough broke the window with a hallagan tool.

On shore, Falke and Briggs were holding the opposite ends of the ropes. Miracle
also re-entered the water, and, without the aid of a suit or a rope, took his
position on the car roof.

Hartman negotiated Misch toward the driver’s door, Miracle kept Misch’s head
below the door frame, and McCullough pulled Misch out of the car and to shore.

McCullough said the Lima-Allen County Paramedics arrived just as they reached
shore. Emergency workers transferred Jean Misch from the Shawnee ambulance to
the LACP ambulance. Misch was transported to St. Rita’s by the Shawnee unit.
Both units went to St. Rita’s.

Firefighters and police officers were also transported to St. Rita’s for
observation Saturday and released shortly after midnight.
Arriving after the rescue, the Allen County dive team, along with Army’s
Wrecking Service, pulled the car from the pond, a task that took as long as 20
minutes, Shawnee Township Police Chief Richard Kohli said. Meanwhile, an Allen
County Sheriff’s Office assigned a deputy to the township to assist with other
township calls, Kohli said.

Jean Misch applauded the quick actions of the men who rescued her. And she,
along with the Shawnee Township police and fire departments, credit her rescue
to the quick response of OnStar, a subscription service that provides roadside
assistance to drivers 24 hours a day. It is usually activated when an air bag is
deployed, which didn’t happen in this case, or someone pushes a button in the
car, OnStar and rescue officials said Sunday.

“Neither one of us pushed OnStar button and that’s the miracle of the whole
thing,” Misch said Sunday. “When they can tell something’s wrong, they call it
in. The fire chief came to the hospital and told me OnStar had our location
right away.”

http://www.limanews.com/story.php?IDnum=2779

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