The thought may have crossed the mind of drivers as they make their way down the narrow South Shore Drive causeway — just inside of Monroe County — with water from Lake Lemon on either side: What would happen if my car accidentally left the road?
On Dec. 17 a young driver from Evansville discovered the answer to that question, but luckily a volunteer firefighter from Brown County was there to help.
Just before 5 p.m. Brown County dispatch received a request from Monroe County asking for assistance in responding to a report of a driver who had entered Lake Lemon from the causeway.
Jackson Township Volunteer Fire Department firefighter Todd Fisher was at his home on Lake Lemon when his fire radio went off with the call.
His home is located on almost the exact opposite side of the lake where the 18-year-old driver had entered the lake, he explained.
Knowing the area well, Fisher said he knew it may be a while before emergency personnel from either county could respond. He jumped in his vehicle and headed to the scene.
“That way I could at least see if there was anything I could do,” he said.
When he pulled up to the scene on the causeway he estimated about six or seven vehicles were already stopped, with people standing outside looking at a car in the water. The front of the vehicle was already below the water.
“You could just see the back end of it,” he said.
“Everyone was standing there, so I just assumed there was no one in the car now. I heard someone kept hollering. I said ‘Is there someone in there?’ This lady said ‘Yeah. She is in the backseat hollering back and forth to us.’ I hollered at her, tried to tell her to get out and I didn’t get a response from her. I knew then somebody has to get down there and get her.”
But first he needed to find something solid to break a vehicle window or pry a door open. After searching his own vehicle and finding nothing that would work, a man at the scene offered a metal bar to Fisher.
Fisher pulled out his keys, his wallet and his phone from his pocket. He handed them to the same man who gave him the bar and told everyone he was going in.
Before diving in, he dialed Brown County dispatch and instructed the man to let them know a volunteer firefighter from Jackson Township was going in for the driver stuck in the vehicle that was almost completely submerged.
And in to the freezing cold he went.
He used the bar to pry open the back door and let the young driver out.
“As soon as I opened the back door she popped out and the car went on down,” Fisher recalled.
“I held on to her, I asked her two or three times before we did anything else, ‘Is there anybody else in the car? How many people were with you?’”
Fisher was already in the water and was prepared to go searching for other vehicle occupants, but the young driver was alone.
“I said ‘Let’s get to the bank.’ I held on to her all the way to the bank. Another lady met us there at the bank and climbed part of the way down and helped her up to the bank,” Fisher said.
That woman then put the driver in her car to warm up with a blanket.
Fisher called dispatch back to let them know the latest update and that the lone occupant was cold, but safe. Fisher requested EMS continue to the scene to check out the driver.
At this point, Brown County Sheriff’s Deputy William Pool arrived on scene. He reported seeing a soaking wet Fisher who looked cold. But Pool was grateful Fisher was there to dive in after the driver.
“The whole way there I was trying to ramp myself up, thinking ‘I am going to have to get wet. This isn’t going to be fun, but I have to do what I have to do.’ I told Fisher I was very thrilled he got there first so I didn’t have to get in and get all cold and wet,” Pool said.
“I was thankful for him getting there, going above and beyond, and doing that because that is not easy to force yourself to do that. … Your mind tells you ‘No that is not what you are supposed to do.’ You have to fight that.”
Pool estimated the water was close to 40 degrees when Fisher and the driver were in there.
“That takes your breath away almost instantly,” Pool said.
Pool spoke with the 18-year-old driver who said she was coming from Evansville to her home in Shelbyville when she ran off the causeway. The incident was ultimately handled by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department who had also arrived on scene after the driver had been transported to the hospital for further treatment.
Pool said he was not sure what caused the driver to leave the causeway, but noted the young driver was not familiar with the area.
“That is a narrow road. … It freaks a lot of people out just driving through there because there is water on both sides. It is not normal to drive on such a narrow piece of pavement with water on both sides,” Pool said.
“I don’t know why she ran off the road, but she did and thankful we had people like Todd Fisher who live in the area.”
When Pool arrived on scene he told Fisher to get in his patrol vehicle to warm up, but adrenaline was still pumping and Fisher felt warm.
Fisher once again went to check on the driver warming up in a vehicle at the scene to triple check no one else was with her. Then Pool took it from there until emergency personnel from Monroe County arrived on scene.
“Right up to the time I got in the car and left was about the time Monroe County fire and all of that was pulling up to the scene. It was done and all over with by the time any other medical or law enforcement arrived on scene,” Fisher said.
Rescue in minutes
Fisher estimated it took him seven minutes from the time dispatch reported the call to when he reached the driver in the water.
When he reached the young driver, Fisher said she “was so scared to death of everything she was going through that she was just in sheer panic.”
The next day Fisher heard from the young driver’s parents who were thankful he was there to rescue their daughter miles away from her home in Shelbyville.
“I made their holidays a whole lot better because of what the outcome could have been,” he said.
The driver also called Fisher to thank him for helping her.
Fisher is a former police officer and has been a volunteer firefighter with the Jackson Township Volunteer Fire Department since around 2017.
He jumped into the water that cold December evening to help someone, which is something he has trained to do for years.
“I train to help people. That’s why I went into law enforcement and that’s why I went into the fire department over there,” he said.
“It’s to help people and obviously she needed help. I was amazed there was that many people standing there and they are just standing there, talking. It just went through my mind ‘Are you guys seriously not going to do anything?’ There’s certain people out there they don’t think about it, they just do it because it’s the right thing to do and it’s what needs done.”
Fisher said it also helped that the water level in the lake was down about 2 feet.
“If the lake was at normal pool even though I got there quick it might have been a difference because it would have been even deeper water,” Fisher said.
“Luckily it played out with the timing the lake was drawn down a little bit. Everything lined up perfectly on that to make it great for everybody involved.”
The young driver was found in the rear of the vehicle since the front was completely underwater.
“The windows will not come down because it’s underwater and it’s not running,” Fisher said.
“Everyone can stand back and say ‘Reach down and open the door.’ But you have a lot of other things going through your mind at that point. You’re not even thinking of it,” he continued as to why the driver did not open the back doors right away.
Pool added that the driver had left her windows rolled up thinking the water could not come in. He continued that rolling vehicle windows down is what drivers should do immediately if they ever crash into a lake or other body of water due to electronic windows shorting out when exposed to moisture like that.
“So that way there is a way out. Once you get in there the pressure on the doors becomes so great, you can’t open the doors,” Pool said.
“She was stuck in an air pocket in the trunk of the vehicle when he got there.”
Jackson Township Volunteer Fire Department Chief Glenn Elmore said his initial thoughts when he heard about what happened was about the safety of everyone involved. Once he found out everyone was safe, his thoughts turned to being in “awe at the bravery and dedication of our volunteers.”
“Todd has always been an individual who goes beyond the call of duty,” Elmore said.
“There is a family out there that instead of mourning this holiday, will have a merry Christmas. And that’s a very good feeling. The department is very proud of Todd.”
