WENDELL, Idaho (KLIX) – A woman is safe thanks to the help of a Fish and Game employee after her vehicle plunged into a pool Tuesday afternoon at the Niagara Springs Fish Hatchery.

A woman was pulled from her SUV by a Fish and Game employee Tuesday at the Niagara Springs Fish Hatchery after her vehicle plunged into an intake pool at the site. (Photo courtesy of Idaho Department of Fish and Game.)
A woman was pulled from her SUV by a Fish and Game employee Tuesday at the Niagara Springs Fish Hatchery after her vehicle plunged into an intake pool at the site. (Photo courtesy of Idaho Department of Fish and Game.)
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Fisheries Technician Derrick Tuttle was standing on a cement pad when an SUV crashed through a fence and plunged into the intake pool.

The woman driver was having a difficult time getting out of her vehicle, said Cassie Sundquist, hatchery complex manager for Fish and Game, and so Tuttle told the woman to break a window from the inside of the vehicle. She did, and Tuttle helped pull her out before the SUV sank into the pool.

It was unclear what caused the crash, Sundquist said, but the roads were slick at the time. Besides the fence and a barrier at the site, there was no damage to the pool.

“The fish are fine,” Sundquist said, noting that more important so is Tuttle and the woman.

"We’re pretty proud of what Derrick did,” Sundquist said. “There’s 100 cfs of water right where the car was sitting. He was the only one there right at the time to help her.”

Other crew members soon joined the scene. They took the woman to the hatchery, where she warmed, changed into dry clothes, and waited for emergency crews to arrive.

Staff from Idaho Power – the utility company owns the Niagara Springs hatchery – also arrived on scene, inspected the pool, and used one of its trucks to pull the SUV from the water.

In a Facebook post about the incident, Tuttle expressed thanks to those who helped, saying the happy outcome all around was a group effort.

“I'm just glad I was there to help the young lady out of the SUV,” he wrote on the department’s Magic Valley page, but noting many other Fish and Game and Idaho Power employees were involved to assist after he pulled the woman from the vehicle.

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