One dead in Noel water incident

Bella Vista firefighters assisted McDonald County and Missouri Highway Patrol units during a rescue attempt in Noel early last Friday, Nov. 8.

The sole occupant of a vehicle died after it went into the Elk River.

McDonald County sheriff Michael Hall said that the accident is estimated to have happened at 5:30 a.m.

A truck was heading north on Missouri State Highway 59 when it lost control and went off the

road and ended up in the Elk River, Noel Marshall Randy Wilson explained.

“We’re pretty sure that he slid,” Wilson said, though he noted the investigation is ongoing and the department isn’t currently certain if it was ice or water that caused the vehicle to slide.

After the driver lost control, he said, the truck went off the embankment and into the Elk River, where it was carried downstream.

“The vehicle was almost completely submerged in the water, so we had to wait for dive teams,” he said.

The current swept the truck roughly 150 yards downstream from where it entered the river, and pushed it further toward the deeper, central portion of the waterway, where it was completely submerged under fast-running water, Bella Vista Fire Chief Steve Sims explained.

“Almost the middle of the water channel,” he said.

Water rescue trained Bella Vista firefighters, working alongside water rescue units from other agencies, were able to recover the vehicle and the body inside, he explained.

Bella Vista firefighter John Stay made the dive into the cold water, where he attached a line to the submerged truck so it could be pulled from the river.

Sims said that the department arrived at 7 a.m. and the truck was extracted at about 8:30 a.m.

“You hate it when someone loses their life,” he said.

Photo courtesy of the Bella Vista Fire Department Centerton Fire Department water rescue team member Chase Looney, left, stands with Bella Vista Fire Department water rescue team members John Stay and Aaron Morgan on a rescue boat at the scene of a water incident, in which a truck went into the Elk River. The truck’s sole occupant died in the water and firefighters dove to recover the body and vehicle.