Water rescues caused by reckless driving on flooded roads

COLUMBUS, In. (WISH) — The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s office has made at least 18 water rescues since Monday night.

With plenty of standing water left Tuesday night, authorities have words of caution for drivers.

Dennis Christian’s Columbus street has been turned into a river.

“There’s a little valley in the golf course that it just trickles up through there and it fills the golf course up,” he said, “When the golf course gets full we’re the lowest property in the subdivision so we get all the water.”

He witnessed a water rescue Tuesday afternoon.

“There were three kids playing in the water on the golf course,” he said.

Bartholomew County Sheriff’s deputies got the kids out without any injuries.

“They went over there and got them off the bench and gave their mom and dad a good talking to,” Christian said.

But Dennis hopes it teaches a lesson about the danger of the floods.

At least 18 rescues have taken place in the county since Monday night.

“At one time we had four different boats out and Tuesday morning we had three or four water rescues going on at the same time,” Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers said.

Myers said most of the situations resulted from driver negligence.

“The majority of those were where water was over roads and unfortunately motorists disobeyed high water signs and drove through the water and got stranded,” he said.

He said people are often in a hurry or underestimate the power of floods.

“People don’t realize it takes a very small amount of water to wash your vehicle off into a ditch or a field,” Myers said.

He said in spots like Dennis Christian’s neighborhood it’s best to just avoid the water and not take the chance.

Myers said there haven’t been any injuries in those rescues.

He wants people to know that deputies will start issuing citations to drivers who disobey any high water signs and need to be rescued.

He said by doing that, the drivers are putting themselves and law enforcement in danger.