Published: October 06, 2008 10:26 pm            

Van submerged in reservoir

Deputies get training, dousing in cold water

The fact the Ford Econoline van was left in drive, with the key in the ignition, was a clue.

Whoever drove the van into the Kokomo Reservoir probably wanted it submerged and ruined.

Kokomo Police were trying Monday to discover why the van was in the reservoir, while the Howard County Sheriff Department dive team was simply trying to get it out.

Along the way, Deputy Todd Prifogle and Detective Greg Hargrove may have perfected a new technique for extricating vehicles dumped off the reservoir’s boat ramp.

Prifogle, who went into the chilly water, had a chance to test a department-owned “dry”suit for the first time. It had a few leaks.

Hargrove, meanwhile, helped Prifogle get ready, and worked out the logistics of helping Prifogle make it about 30 yards out to where the van was stuck in the reservoir muck.

Two tow truck operators from Wilkerson Towing helped out as well, but Prifogle had the honor of breathing air from a scuba tank as he searched for the van’s rear axle.

Once Prifogle found the axle and attached a steel hook, Hargrove ran another hook — attached to steel winch cable — out to Prifogle.

The last time they had to fish a vehicle out, Prifogle tried to drag the winch cable out by himself. The weight and tension of the cable kept pulling him back towards shore.

“This is a hundred thousand times easier,” Prifogle said of the new technique.

He’d taken a buoy with him out to the van, and Hargrove tied a rope line — one end of which was attached to the buoy — to the upper part of a post on the boat ramp dock.

Because the buoy was also anchored to the “J hook” Prifogle had attached to the van’s axle, the rope Hargrove tied off acted as a zip line out to the buoy.

Hargrove let the hook from the tow truck slide down his makeshift zip line, out to Prifogle, and in a few seconds, Prifogle had secured that hook to the chain already attached to the van.

A few minutes later, the van was out of the water, and Prifogle was warming up. All in a day’s training.

        

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