The Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office said the deputy spotted skid marks on the road and tracked the vehicle through 50 yards of brush before finding the man pinned in his vehicle.
KITTITAS CO., Wash – A Kittitas County Sheriff’s deputy’s keen eyes and investigative instinct saved the life of a man who was trapped in his crashed car.
The crash happened at the intersection of Thrall and Canyon Road Sunday. The Ellensburg Police Department said they got a call from a woman just after midnight who said she couldn’t get ahold of her boyfriend. She said he was driving up from Yakima and had started several hours earlier, however, he didn’t show up and he wasn’t answering his phone.
The woman said she called the Washington State Patrol and local hospitals, but no one reported finding the man. Using the man’s cell phone information, Ellensburg Police were able to find a signal from his phone near Woodhouse Loop. Officers with the police department and deputies with the KCSO set out to find him.
After nearly an hour, the KCSO said Deputy Chuck Berg found skid marks at the intersection of Thrall and Canyon Road, which was about a mile outside of the area that was first “pinged.” Deputy Berg followed the tracks in the snow and had to go through about 50 yards of brush before he found a vehicle that had crashed. The vehicle was invisible from the road and the missing man was found pinned inside the vehicle. He was taken to the hospital and suffered serious injuries in the crash, as well as cold exposure.
The sheriff’s office said it was grateful to all of the help from Ellensburg PD. “This certainly wasn’t the first life Deputy Berg has saved, and it probably won’t be the last,” the social media statement said. “Thank you, Chuck, and thanks to our Ellensburg PD partners for their diligence in community-caretaking calls like this one.”
The updated condition of the man is not yet known.
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