With High Water, Rural Ditches Can Be Dangerous

Henry County - In this single-vehicle roll-over accident the highway patrol reports the death of one passenger. Two people, one a 47-year-old woman and the other a 64-year old man were driving in a 2001 Dodge Ram Truck that left the roadway, slid into the ditch and rolled. The exact location of the collision is noted to be the 2600 block of Franklin Avenue, a half mile north of 275^th Street. There is no indication in the report the reasons the driver lost control and why the truck drove off the hard surface. The truck ended up in a ditch; the ditch was full of water from heavy rains and I'm going to guess at this point the driver drowned. I just got back from driving from Omaha and noticed the swollen rivers and standing water all along I-80. Unfortunately this time the driver, Catherine White died. The passenger, Gary L. Albright was more fortunate and was taken to the Henry County Health Center.

I've blogged about the problems with ditch water and people drowning in previous posts. The understand this issue a little better see the article, Iowa, Butler County ditch drowning demonstrates a lesson about driving on rural Iowa roads and lowering your speed.

"In this case a single vehicle collision caused by what the Iowa State Patrol says was a loss of control killed the two adults but sparing the 1 year old child. Later reports indicate the child did die. The car is said to have rolled into a ditch that was partially filled with water. The report makes no mention as the cause of death but one can assume the standing water in the ditch had some effect. The accident happened near Parkersburg, Iowa.

KWWL provided the additional information. They also have photographs on the KWWL website." June 14, 2009

The driver is responsible for keeping the car under control; and to avoid distractions that lead to a failure to maintain control.