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Post by cooter on Jan 15, 2008 0:36:21 GMT -5
I heard it earlier tonight... IDK any further.
Editorial from the Beacon News
BATAVIA -- Fire and police crews and two teams of divers responded Monday night to reports of a car in the Fox River.
The department was notified of a car in the water in the 800 block of North River Street at about 7:45 p.m., Batavia fire and police officials said.
"A witness saw the car enter the river," said a Batavia police officer. "It was drifting with the lights on."
The lights then went out and the car sank beneath the surface, the witness told police.
St. Charles and Aurora Fire Departments were assisting.
No further information was immediately available.
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Post by cooter on Jan 15, 2008 0:38:26 GMT -5
**UPDATE**
Via the Kane County Chronicle
BATAVIA – Attempts to recover the body of a man in a car that was seen plunging into the Fox River are set to resume today. Efforts were suspended Monday night due to dangerous conditions.
The man’s identity was unknown Monday night. It is not clear whether the man died before or after the car entered the water.
A city Public Works department employee called police around 7:30 p.m., said Cmdr. Gregory Thurn, spokesman for the Batavia Police Department. The worker had noticed a car driving west through the parking lot of the Batavia Boat Club in the 800 block of North River Street, Thrun said.
The car then plunged into the river with its headlights on. It drifted about 150 yards down river before sinking, Thrun said.
Multiple departments responded to the scene including St. Charles and Aurora, which sent dive teams. Divers located the vehicle on the river’s bottom. The Batavia police department confirmed one dead male was discovered. Swift currents and icy temperatures hampered efforts to raise the vehicle.
“Obviously the water is very cold, the air is very cold,” Thrun said. It was 20 degrees Fahrenheit at 8 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.
Information about the type of car was unavailable.
Emergency vehicles occupied a stretch of North River Street between Madison Street and Laurelwood Park as rescue operations continued through the evening.
Members of the Fox River Chapter of the American Red Cross were on hand, passing out hot chocolate and coffee to emergency workers.
Batavia Fire Department Chief Bill Darin said that Batavia handled three to four water rescues a year.
“Most of them are unfounded,” Darin said.
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Post by gangsterade on Jan 15, 2008 20:32:05 GMT -5
Ah water rescue's my fav
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Post by cooter on Jan 16, 2008 0:22:53 GMT -5
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Post by cooter on Jan 16, 2008 0:27:29 GMT -5
*UPDATE*
Batavia, IL. --
Batavia river rescue crews pulled a silver BMW out of the Fox River at about 12:40 p.m. Tuesday. The driver’s body was still in the car, as crews put red tarps over its windows and moved it onto a tow truck to be hauled to the nearby Batavia Police Department.
Rescue crews had been working since the call came in at 7:38 p.m. Monday to recover the BMW with a man in his late 50s inside. They broke the effort off at 11:30 p.m., because swift currents were pulling divers toward the dam. The recovery resumed at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Batavia police Cmdr. Gregory Thrun said the department is treating the area as a crime scene, though he would not speculate further, while waiting for autopsy results, and the victim is positively identified. Thrun said the victim is a man in his late 50s, and an autopsy will be performed Wednesday morning.
The victim’s identification is consistent with the BMW’s registration and owner’s description, Thrun said. Police officials notified the victim’s family, and the man had not been reported as a missing person, though family members did not know his whereabouts when the car rolled into the frigid water Monday night. The car is registered to a St. Charles resident.
“We’re treating this as a crime scene,” Thrun said. “We’re running a very methodical operation, so we can make sure we’re doing the right procedure.”
The car has been transported to the Batavia Police Department’s impounding garage, and the body will be taken to the Kane County Coroner’s office.
About 75 emergency personnel were involved in the efforts Tuesday morning. The vehicle submerged near the east bank of the Fox River near Laurelwood Park on River Lane in Batavia.
By late morning, 14 divers from the St. Charles and Aurora fire departments, working in four teams, were trying to hook up the car to a large tow truck with a winch and pull it out of the water.
They were battling frigid temperatures both on land and in the water, poor visibility in the water, a strong current pulling them toward the North Batavia Dam and ice floes along the river’s surface. Divers worked in teams so they could rotate getting in and out of the freezing water, while others moved river rescue rafts through the water, using the oars to break up the ice.
“Keeping the ice broken up so the boats can get through is kind of an issue we didn’t have before,” Thrun said.
Divers were able to locate the car after about an hour Tuesday, and pulled it from the water.
Thrun said this kind of rescue is new to Batavia, which has been aided by emergency personnel from Aurora, North Aurora, Geneva and St. Charles.
“I’ve been here almost 30 years, and I don’t ever remember having a car go all the way in submerged like this,” Thrun said.
-- Aurora Beacon-News
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