A 75-year-old man and a male acquaintance were rescued from the roof of a pickup truck that had fallen through the ice on Otter Tail Lake on Friday.
Robert Karst, of Battle Lake, who was driving the truck, and his unidentified male passenger, were brought back to shore unharmed, according to a press release from the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office. Karst will be responsible for removing the truck from the lake.
The press release states that the sheriff’s office and Ottertail Fire and Rescue responded to a report of a pickup that had gone through the ice on the southwest corner of Otter Tail Lake at 6:05 p.m. Karst and his acquaintance were able to crawl onto the roof of the truck, which was only partially submerged.
Emergency responders found the truck up to its running boards in water. The pickup had broken through a thin layer of ice near a pressure ridge and ended up in a shallow pool that had formed near the ridge, according to the sheriff’s office. Thicker ice under the pool of water had kept the truck from completely falling through.
Ottertail Fire and Rescue was able to retrieve the stranded men with an ATV.
